WhatsApp announces encrypted location sharing

Sharing one’s location is definitely not hard these days, as it’s a feature that is built into most services in some way or another.

Now WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging platforms out there, is announcing its own effort in the location sharing game. Today the company officially announced a brand new way to share your “live location,” effectively giving real-time location info to those you want to share it with.

It works about the same way it does in any other messaging service. You open a chat with the person you want to share your location with — the feature also supports groups, too — and from there, you open the “Location” option within the attach section and click the new “Share Live Location.” You will get to pick how long you share your location with the people in the chat. So if you just want to let them know where you are for a half hour, you’ll be able to do that.

Once the timer runs out, the app will stop sharing your location automatically. And if you want to stop sharing sooner, you can end it at any time. What’s more, this location sharing in real-time is end-to-end encrypted.

According to WhatsApp, this new feature will be available for both the Android and iOS apps, and it will begin rolling out to users in the coming weeks. So if this is something you’ll want to use, keep an eye out for it.

source: androidandme