Snapchat Adds New Safety Features, Including Live Location Requests

Snapchat is integrating a new safety feature into its Snap Map, enabling parents to request real-time location sharing from their teens within the app. This new function allows parents to prompt their teens to share their live location at any time. Additionally, parents can reciprocate the action, facilitating a mutual tracking system to enhance user safety. This function could mitigate parents' concerns about their children's whereabouts and aid in making Snap a trustworthy communication platform. However, some may perceive it as invasive. While the feature replicates existing location sharing capabilities in iOS and Google Maps, having it within Snapchat might prove to be more effective. Another update will also allow parents to oversee their child's location-sharing preferences. As explained by Snapchat, this feature equips parents with visibility about their teen's location sharing on Snap Map, enabling informed decisions regarding sharing choices. Another addition is “Travel Notifications“, whereby parents receive alerts when their child leaves or arrives at programmed locations, such as home or school. It also offers reminders for users to modify their location sharing preferences periodically. This functionality extends Snapchat's existing Family Center features, equipping parents with control over their teens' connections on the app. Given 60% of U.S. teens being regular Snap users, as indicated by Pew Research, these additions could enhance Snapchat’s reputation as a safe communication alternative, instead of a “secret messaging app.“ These features, Snapchat says, are set to be gradually introduced in the coming weeks.