Snapchat’s Map Explore Feature Will Let You Know When Your Friends Are Hanging Out Without You

Snapchat is introducing a new feature called Map Explore today that will help alert and update users about what’s happening on their Snap Map. The travel and location updates will also appear on the user’s snap Map when a friend clicks on a share location button it will automatically share the Friends location. The feature added will also show Explores updates for “Our Story snaps including breaking news and other events from all around the world.

The new feature is an easier way for users to explore content on Snapchat based on location, which is a nifty tool if you want to see what’s happening elsewhere… or see when your friends are hanging out without you.

Snapchat said in a statement that it’s introducing this tool to help make updates easier to be accessed by users, also added by the company  “We made Map Explore because we noticed that when you open the Map, you aren’t always sure where to start your journey. Meanwhile, if your friend is sharing their location on the map but hasn’t opened the app in eight hours, their location will disappear. Only one status is visible for each user at any given time, and each status can be viewed for up to 24 hours.

How it works

To access the feature, pinch to zoom out from the camera screen when you launch the app. Tap on new updates at the bottom of the screen, then swipe horizontally to scroll through updates from your friends and other content from Snap Map. If you want to delete your status or turn on Ghost Mode (which hides your location) tap on the settings icon in the top right hand of the map.

The feature will roll out globally over the next few weeks.