Older versions of the app which are not updated will not offer maps. The UK Safer Internet Centre reinforced advice for kids ‘It is important to be careful about who you share your location with, as it can allow people to build up a picture of where you live, go to school and spend your time’. Snap (Snapchats owner company) passes the buck nicely by pointing out that ‘Points of interest’ for example, schools are ‘provided’ by 3rd party Mapbox. If you opt in your location is shared every time you open the app. Sorry did I mention Snapchat’s video didn’t cover this. Verge asks ‘What if you’re home alone at night and open the app to view friends snaps’. Ultimately Wired aptly summed up general concerns for younger users and teens who will opt in and ‘might not fully grasp the implications of a technology that constantly tracks their location’. Stalking, threatening, bullying, unwelcome visitors, opportunistic adults, relationship control, vulnerable children and young people revealing their locations, not to mention adults.

Yes, Maps has the ability to ‘zoom’ right into the street location. Worryingly Snapchat Maps do seem to give a pretty accurate location of where you are located when using Snapchat. Why 8 hrs? Does this apply at night? So if They’ve also said ‘If you don’t open the app for 8 hours, your location will be removed from the Map until you open Snapchat again’.

Snapchat do state on their website that ‘Like Search, the only way a Snap can show up on the Map is if it has been submitted to Our Story’. To view, the user just has to pinch fingers on the Snapchat camera screen and this will open up the Map. Snapchat users who have chosen to share their location (ie not those in ghost mode) can be seen on the map by those they have added as ‘friends’.

Photos and videos users post publicly to (Our Story) can be found on the map.

Snap map full