How To Use Nearby Friends On Facebook
Nearby Friends is a Facebook feature that alerts you to the location of your friends when they are nearby. You may also utilize the function to monitor your friend’s real-time whereabouts. This function is accessible in the Facebook mobile app, and if activated, you will get alerted when your friends are within a certain distance of your current position. As a result of Facebook, you can easily meet up for a bite to eat.
The function, which was released on April 17, 2014 and is still being rolled out in phases, is probably not accessible to you yet, which makes it ideal for us to have a short talk about 5 important things you should know about Facebook Nearby Friends.
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- How to Make Use of Nearby Friends
To begin, in order for Nearby Friends to function, you must share your location with your friends and have them do the same for you. To activate Nearby Friends (when it becomes available), go to the More tab in your Facebook app (iOS or Android) and search for Nearby Friends in the menu to enable it.
If you share your individual locations, any of your friends who have opted in for this function by turning it on will be able to see you in the list. The list will also display the distance between you and your buddy, their most recent recorded location, and the neighborhood they are now in.
- Sharing Precise Location At Predetermined Time
If you’re not comfortable revealing your whereabouts all of the time, but want to for a gathering or a meet-up, Nearby Friends allows you to define the time you’re trackable through the function. You may share the exact position of your whereabouts with your friend(s) for a specified length of time.
That means you can check at your friends’ exact location on a map and predict when they will arrive at the agreed-upon meeting place, or if they aren’t yet on their way (even if they said they are).
- Data Utilization
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and utilizing Nearby Friends will ultimately result in you being exposed to some advertising (says Facebook). Essentially, there is a plan to utilize the data collected by your location history for marketing reasons in the future.
The information you provide to utilize Nearby Friends may be readily accessed by Facebook and shared with marketers, who will most likely send you tailored advertisements – which isn’t so terrible. For example, if you and a buddy are having lunch at a restaurant that is running a special offer, you will most likely get an online coupon.
However, this isn’t breaking news since every other Facebook function that needs your location, even before Nearby Friends, may be utilized in the same manner.
- Facebook Features That Make Use of Location Data
Even before Nearby Friends, there were other Facebook services that used or relied on your location to function. Facebook Messenger, Nearby Places, Check-in, and Status Update are the names of these functionalities. If you use Facebook Messenger and send a status update via mobile, keep in mind that your location information is enabled by default.
So, theoretically, Facebook already knows your position as a result of the above-mentioned capabilities. Until today, it couldn’t follow you most of the time or all of the time. If you’re okay with that, Nearby Pals is definitely a fantastic tool to help you reconnect with friends more quickly.
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- There Are Better Apps Available
It should be noted that there are currently a few other services that provide comparable, if not better, location-based functionality. Circle, for example, is an app that you can use to find out what local activities are occurring near you and which of your friends are attending the events.
Connect gathers all of your social network contacts (not just those on Facebook) onto a single map. You can see who is nearby, who is visiting from out of town, and your social address book is always up to date.
We also recently tested Fire chat, a software that enables you to chat offline with others in your area through Open Garden mesh networks without needing an internet connection.
It’s worth noting that if you use Android, you already have a tool that’s quite similar to Nearby Friends: Google Now Commute Sharing. You may notify your friends and family when you’re leaving work with Commute Sharing. It operates on the Google+ network, allowing you to share your location with people in your circles.
Once enabled, your location will be accessible in the form of Google Now cards when you are at work, leaving work, and returning home — at every step of the journey.
Yes, We Do Need to Discuss Privacy.
Nearby Friends can only function if you and your buddy share the same location. The good news is that you may share your location with your Facebook list, a select group of friends, or the whole world.
But, let’s face it, most individuals will definitely disclose their whereabouts with everyone on Facebook since it’s far handier.
Oversharing your personal information with everyone may yield no results, or it may come back to harm you one day. Oversharing has consequences that are unique to each person, so utilize the function with care rather than complaining about how Facebook is invading your privacy or misappropriating your private info when something terrible occurs. The function is optional, and remember that you are ultimately responsible for your own privacy.
5 Facebook Privacy Options You Should Be Aware Of
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Conclusion
In contrast to other comparable services, one distinct benefit of Facebook Nearby Friends is that the majority of your friends are almost certainly already on Facebook. One potential downside is that this function may have an impact on your battery life. However, if you want to integrate your online social life back into your actual world, this is perhaps one of the finest Facebook features that may help you do it.
