Instagram is reportedly working on a “Friends Map” feature so users can track their friends’ locations

Instagram is reportedly working on a feature that will allow users to see their friends’ last active location on a map. The feature is said to be called Friend Map and appears to be similar to Snap Map. According to a leak, Instagram may soon add a world map-like interface where users will be able to see others across the map based on their shared location. Users can also put themselves on the map by creating posts with location information.

Mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi expired details about this feature on February 24 on X (formerly known as Twitter). Sharing multiple screenshots of Friends Map, he said: “Instagram continues to work on Friends Map: your friends, on a map.” If true, it would be a new interface for the social media app and could even uses as a new way to discover people and accounts near the user’s location.

Based on the images, it looks like the Friend Map will open the world map where a user’s friends can be seen (if they share their location data). The screenshots show that users will also be able to leave notes on the card. This may look similar to how the Notes feature currently appears in the Direct Message section. If the leak is to be believed, users could have up to three different places to update their status, including stories, notes, and map notes. “Find a new excuse to share what’s happening wherever you are,” reads the message on the screenshot.

Other possible features of Friend Map include choosing which friends can see the shared location, end-to-end encryption of location data, and an easy method of adding posts to the map just by adding location information to them. A screenshot also shows detailed controls offered by Instagram, where the user can control who sees the last active location by choosing between Ghost mode (no one sees it), Followers you follow backand Close friends. No other details about this feature are known at this time.

Thumbs up too re-shared old post from October 2023 where new stories icon with the text Close by can be seen. The tipster stated that this could also be related to the Friend Map feature. Although the details remain unknown, it is possible that all posts of nearby users on the friends map can be directly viewed there.