Snapchat offers improved location sharing Family Centerits parental control center, the company announced Thursday.
Users have been able to share their location on Snapchat for some time, but the new feature allows parents to receive a notification in the app’s Family Center when their teen leaves or arrives at certain locations, such as school. Previously, parents had to find their teens on Snap Map or go to their profile to see where they were; This new feature makes it easier for parents to stay on top of things as they can see their child’s location directly in the Family Center.
The first time parents set this up, they send a request asking their teen to share their current location. Alerts can be set for up to three locations on Snap Map, so parents can be notified when their child leaves school, arrives for piano lessons, and then goes home.
With this new feature, Snapchat may be looking to take on Life360, a popular service that allows families to track each other’s whereabouts and receive updates when family members arrive or leave certain locations.
“We’re adding travel alerts to Family Center to give parents more peace of mind when they know their teen got to class on time, left sports practice on time, or even got home from a night out with friends,” Snapchat wrote in a blog.
Photo credit:Snapchat
Parents will soon be able to see who their teens share their location with on Snapchat. Additionally, Snapchat will begin requiring users who want to share their location with all of their friends on the app to check who they share their location with.
Snapchat says more than 350 million people use Snap Map every month and that these new features will allow families to stay connected on the go.
The new features announced on Thursday will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Snapchat first launched Family Center in 2022 to give parents insights into their teens’ use of the social networking app. In response, the company launched the hub increased Pressure from lawmakers who want social media apps to better protect young users of their services.
Since launching the hub, Snapchat has updated it additional functions from time to time to help parents protect their teenagers. However, parents may not even know that tools exist. Earlier this year, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel revealed that only 20 million teenagers in the US use Snapchat around 200,000 parents Use Family Center supervisory controls.
