Facebook Messenger Now Allows You To Send A Map With Your Location

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Just recently we reported about some pretty creepy location information that Facebook stores via the Messenger app and which was revealed by a Chrome extension called the ‘Marauders Map.’ The extension basically plotted your friends location on a map and a history of previous locations they have visited allowing you to see the movement of the phone from times they used Messenger with location settings enabled.

Well Facebook has never really been shy about privacy matters and yesterday they revealed a new feature through the Facebook Messenger app which will allow you to send your location in the form of a map to your contact of choice via the Messenger app.

The map is displayed and shared directly in the message thread and will not only allow you to share current location but will also allow you to pin to a location and share that instead. This means you could pin a location on a restaurant where you want to meet and share it with your friend. Facebook says in a blog post that this is going to replace the old location features on Messenger.

With this update, you have full control over when and how you share your location information. You only send a location when you tap on the location pin and then choose to send it as a separate message. You can also share a location—like a meeting spot—even if you’re not there.

Facebook also notes that nothing is changing in terms of privacy permissions and says that Messenger does not gain any location information from the device in the background, it only pulls in location data when you select a location yourself.

Of course you can as always disable location settings entirely which is probably not a bad idea given Facebook’s sketchy history with privacy and data. Unless this is a feature which you need to have. WhatsApp which was acquired by Facebook last year has had a similar location sharing feature on its platform for some time now.

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About The Author

Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis. He has an Advanced Diploma in Psychology and a Diploma in Digital Marketing And Social Media. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here. Or you can drop Mark an email at, daltomark@me.com