Snapchat has become the perfect social network for anyone who wants to keep their friends close without the bloat of other social networks. While Facebook encourages you to interact with hundreds of people throughout your life, and Twitter is essentially a public square integrated into the internet, Snapchat focuses on sharing things with those closest to you, whether it’s one-on-one snaps or in groups. You share it with your friends or your entire contact list through your stories.
With this smaller audience included, users are more likely to share content they would normally keep private, as there is no risk as sharing the same content on a platform like Twitter.
Perhaps one of the best examples of sharing information that you would otherwise keep private comes in Snap Map, which lets you publicly post your location with close friends, your entire list, or just yourself if you’re feeling private. Snap Map is a fascinating feature that shows you where your friends are in the world with an authenticity no other social network offers.
Snap Map, as you can imagine, received mixed reviews from users. Some Snapchat users consider the feature to be fun and unique, while others see it as an invasion of privacy. Not everyone wants their location constantly posted online.
If you’re wondering when Snap Map updates your location on your device, you’re not alone. Snapchat can be a confusing app to use, especially if you’re new to the platform.
Let’s take a look at how Snapchat can help you share your location with your friends and when your location in the app is updated.
What Exactly Is a Snap Map?
One of Snapchat’s most controversial features since its launch, Snap Map is a feature added to Snapchat that allows you to share your location with your friends and see where your friends are when they open the app. Swiping down from the camera interface in Snapchat loads a complete map of the Earth on your device.
On this map, each of your friends’ Bitmoji appears on the map – showing where they are at the moment. The map will also show when friends have added to their stories in new or popular locations and if their friends have traveled long distances by car or plane.
When Snap Map is enabled in your app, it will share your location with all your friends list, selected friends or none depending on your selection in the app.
If you want to make sure your location is always kept private, you can do so by enabling Ghost Mode, which hides your location for a certain period of time or until you manually disable Ghost Mode. Great news for privacy-conscious Snapchat users.
When is Snap Map Updated?
Snap Map is not updating in the background. Unlike Google Maps, which will update live if you share your location, Snapchat only updates your location on the map when the app is actively open on your device. For your location to update properly, you need to make sure location services are enabled on your device and then open Snapchat to allow your location to change.
This happens automatically, but if you open the app and keep working while you’re in a moving car (I hope you’re not driving), the app won’t show you’re driving down a road. Instead, the app updates frequently, pinning your Bitmoji to the location you last saw it.
It’s also worth noting that your Snap Map location will almost always expire overnight, as the app’s location expires after several hours of inactivity. Snapchat isn’t sure when this happens, but in our testing, locations never get old before seven hours before your Bitmoji disappears from the map, waiting for Snapchat to reopen.
So, if you’re worried about your privacy but still want to use this feature, don’t worry too much. Snapchat doesn’t broadcast your location 24/7.
Can I Turn Off Snap Map?
You cannot turn the feature off, but you can turn off your personal location by enabling Ghost Mode. As described above, Ghost Mode gives you the option to hide your location for 3 hours, 24 hours, or until you manually turn off Ghost Mode, and it hides your location permanently.
With Ghost Mode enabled, you can still use Snap Map to see your friends’ locations while your Bitmoji is standing still, silently protected by the ghost mask they hold in front of their faces.
And of course, if you don’t want to use the feature at all, it’s easy to avoid the feature altogether and pretend it’s not there.
Who Can See My Location on Snap Map?
Sharing your location may seem like an unsafe thing to do on Snapchat, but luckily, you can easily tweak the settings to match exactly what you want in Snapchat.
If you want to hide your location from everyone but a few friends or exclude just a few people, it’s easy to customize your settings while keeping Snap Map enabled for your location.
Alternatively, if you want to keep your location private except for a few minutes each year, you can count on manually sending your location to someone.
In any case, it’s easy to control who can see your location with the controversial Snap Map feature.
Can You See Someone Checking Your Location On The Snap Map?
The answer to this is a little more complicated than you might think. Most of the time, the answer is a hard no. Opening Snap Map from the camera screen shows everyone’s location on your map, so it’s hard for Snapchat to actually show who viewed your location.
Just because someone is scanned by your Bitmoji on a map doesn’t mean they’re actually checking your place on Snap Map. Instead, they may have never seen a different person’s location or a specific person’s location. They may even have accidentally opened the map while swiping your finger across the screen.
When you open the app, your location will be updated automatically. Your location will be deleted from the app approximately five to six hours after you open the app. It is possible to check the location of someone on the map through both Snap Map itself and Snap user’s profile. If the map is not visible for someone on Snapchat, it means Snap Map is disabled or has not used the app for more than six hours.
However, Snapchat to do It has a feature that shows when a person has traveled from one place to another, using time and distance to calculate whether they are moving by car or plane. This travel feature is displayed independently by selecting the travel card from the bottom of the screen and shows a dotted line from the original place to the new place the person is following.
When you view this, you do not directly warn or inform the person whose journey you are following. However, on the profile screen within Snapchat, if you scroll down, you’ll find that while you’re traveling Snapchat treats your actions like a story within the app itself. This includes being able to see who viewed your particular move on the map. Clicking on the list will show you exactly who has viewed where you are going.
So, although you can’t see everyone who sees your location on Snap Map, to be Whether you hop from city to city or fly to the other side of the world, see who’s been looking at your recent travels.
Still, we have to reiterate that as a privacy setting, it’s impossible to see who is controlling your overall Snap Map location, so it’s important to make sure the app is set in the privacy settings that make you feel most comfortable.
If there is someone you don’t want to see your location, you should remove that person from the list. Likewise, if you only have a small group of people you want to allow access to your location, it’s easy to pick just a few names from your friends list. And of course, if you don’t want anyone to have access to your location, Ghost Mode makes it easy to hide your location from everyone on Snapchat for a limited time or until you turn the setting off.
Last word
When Snap Map was first released in 2017, there were serious concerns about privacy and security. Snapchat acquired Zenly before developing and publishing this map. Zenly was a location-based social media app. As such, Snap Map was based on an app that already dealt with some of these questions.
For most users, Ghost Mode should be enough to address privacy concerns. This setting does the job of hiding your location for as long as you want.
But despite the lack of Ghost Mode and background updates, Snap Map is too intrusive for some users. When you use the feature without precautions, your friends can develop a good idea of your daily routes. This can be a real concern for anyone who is at odds with a friend or breaking up with a significant other who may be angry.
If you prefer more privacy, you may enjoy using the Send/Request Location feature instead of using Snap Map. This allows you to directly share your location with a specific friend, with automatic updates for up to eight hours. After eight hours, no one can see your location.
Did you find this article helpful?
If so, be sure to read our article on How to Stop a Snap being Sent on Snapchat.
