Instagram is developing a "Friends Map," which will allow users to see the location of their contacts in real time.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed this to the TechCrunch website.
The feature was first spotted by Italian developer Alessandro Paluzzi, who often discovers what's new in popular apps by analyzing their code before the official launch.
The "Friend Map" would be very similar to what a competing app, Snapchat, called Snap Map already offers.
The Meta social network has often taken inspiration from others to introduce new features, including Stories, which have made Snapchat famous.
According to TechCrunch, the move would help Instagram ensure that subscribers spend more time on the app and less on other companies' services.
According to screenshots published on Threads by Paluzzi, Instagram's friends map would allow users to choose who can see their location, always relying on end-to-end encryption for data security.
You can decide to share your location with all your followers, with your list of "close friends" or with no one.
The map also has a "Ghost Mode" setting, to hide your last active location.
For the spokesperson, the possibility of including short messages on the map, in the form of notes, is not excluded, so that contacts can both see the location of friends and read any information about them.
In late 2022, Instagram introduced a searchable map experience to explore popular locations and filter results by specific categories, including restaurants, cafes, and tourist spots.
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