How To See And Get To Snapchat Map, The New Location Feature

Last week Snapchat started rolling out the Snap Map to users on both iOS and Android devices. The map is a brand new feature that allows users to share their location and see where their friends are and what they’re doing right in the app. It also shows users looking at the map “stories” that are going on around them at the time.

The Snap Map has raised safety and privacy concerns since its release. Using the map to share your location is not necessary, you can go into “ghost mode” to hide your location from other users, or you can choose to share your location with only select friends in the app if you want.

Read: How To Disable Snap Map: New Snapchat Feature Raises Privacy Concerns

If you’ve updated you’ve updated your app in the past few days, you likely have the newest version and subsequently the map. Once you have the newest version and you’ve opened the app, it will walk you through how to use the map feature and how to change the setting within it.

How to see and use the Snap Map [Tutorial]:

First, make sure you have updated your Snapchat app. You can check for an update in the App Store or on Google Play. Once you have the latest version of the app, open it. When you’re on the home screen with the camera open, pinch the screen the same way you would if you were trying to zoom out on a photo. If you move your fingers the opposite way, as you would if you were zooming in on a photo, you’ll just zoom in on whatever is in the frame.

Once you open the map you should see a map of the area around you. The default mode is “ghost” mode, so your location won’t be shared with anyone unless you turn it on. You can turn ghost mode on or off by selecting the gear icon in the upper right corner of the map. You enable or turn on ghost mode, use the toggle to turn it on, it will be green when it’s on. If you turn it off, you’ll then see the option to share your location with all of your friends or some of your friends.

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You can zoom in or out on the map to see more specific neighborhoods or the entire country if you want. If your friends have their location turned on and they aren’t in ghost mode, you’ll be able to see their “actionmojis” on the map. These are like bitmojis, but based on things like location and speed, Snapchat will guess what they’re doing, hence the “action” part of the name. These actionmojis and the location only updates when a friend is actually using the app, and if they haven’t used the app for a few hours, they’ll disappear from the map