Instagram Adds Live Location Sharing to Direct Messages

Instagram today announced several updates for direct messages on its platform, including location sharing, nicknames, new sticker packs, and more.

instagram location sharing
There's now an option to share a live location with a friend for up to one hour on Instagram, which can be used for locating friends when getting together in real life. There's also an option to pin a spot to a map for coordinating meetups.

Instagram says that locations can only be shared privately in DMs, either in a chat with just one other person or a group chat. All live locations will expire after an hour, and the feature is turned off by default. Only people in the chat can see your location, and location information cannot be forwarded to other chats. Instagram's blog post says that users should be "mindful" of their privacy and only share their location with real-life friends.

DMs in Instagram can be customized with nicknames, which appear in DM chats. Users can set nicknames for themselves or their friends, simplifying lengthy usernames to make them easier to recognize. Creating a nickname can be done by tapping on the chat name at the top of a conversation and then tapping on Nicknames and the username of the person.

Along with location sharing and nicknames, Instagram has also added 17 sticker packs with 300 new stickers that can be used in DMs. There is a new option to favorite a sticker, and a new DM sticker tray.

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Top Rated Comments

TechnoMonk Avatar
2 weeks ago
Yeah, then sell the location information to third parties for better uSeR ExPeRieNcE.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nostradumbass Avatar
2 weeks ago
Get the zuck out of here.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
picpicmac Avatar
2 weeks ago

including location sharing
I'm so old that I remember people were scared of the day when big brother could track them in real-time...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
2 weeks ago
Oh hellllls no
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gknewell Avatar
2 weeks ago
Voluntarily sharing your location in real-time with Meta sounds like an absolutely terrible idea.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
grantishere Avatar
2 weeks ago
Oh no...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)