Snapchat made the leap towards the stock market in March and the platform has experienced shaky times since. The recent European launch of Spectacles and a massive €90 million investment by Time Warner has done much to settle the ship. Snapchat has continued to make waves this week with the launch of their Snap Map feature and the internet is freaking out.
What are Snap Maps?
Snap Maps are a new way of seeing what your friends are up to on Snapchat by browsing your locality. You can even zoom out to see what your friends around the world are up to. You and your friends have to opt into location sharing, but once that’s your location will appear on the Snap Map.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvl82FfnUvw
You can also see what’s got in your area, you know like Justin Bieber concerts and the likes.
How to access your Snap Map
Accessing your map to share your activities and see your friends activities is pretty simple:
- Update your Snapchat app to the latest iOS or Android version
- Open the Snapchat app
- Activate your selfie camera
- Pinch to zoom out
- Select who can see you
- Look around the Snap Map
And that should be it. You’re up and running.
What is the point of your Snap Map?
Snapchats intro video paints a perfect world where you pop into the app and see who’s having the craic before joining them. This could work, but really Snap Maps are a great way of getting a good idea of where all those people in your Snapchat app actually are. We live in a world where friends and family are dotted around the world, so it’s nice to actually see that in map form.
Why are people freaking out?
Whenever a new location service like this comes out, people go into full blown tinfoil hat mode. We even found one guy who was warning everyone to check for sex offenders in their areas because of this feature.
Honestly, because you must activate your location and even then only friends can see your location, it’s fairly safe. You really have to take responsibility for the company you keep on Snapchat. I can hear you screaming at your screen, ‘but what about the kids?’ and I hear you. If you don’t trust your kids to use Snapchat responsibly, why did you let them get a smartphone in the first place?
Seriously, you have a piece of tech that can do wonderful things, treat it with respect.
What do you think of your Snap Map? Is it really cool or really creepy? Either way, add us on Snapchat for the craic.
