[adjkant]

Some random things I use find my friends and Snapchat's map for:

1. Seeing if/when friends get home safe after a late night (they may forget to text before going to bed)

2. ETA of friends I'm meeting that travel by bike

3. Is X in the neighborhood if I wanted to stop by? (avoids the check message, still will check for most friends before showing up at the door)

Sharing your location is a personal choice I'd never judge someone for not doing, but I very much enjoy it with close friends I trust.

[torben-friis]

For the two first points, Whatsapp lets you share your location for a small amount of time (either 15 mins or 1 hour).

It's very common when a group of people is going to hang out, so the rest of them that come a bit later doesn't need to go through the whole dance ("hey are you still at X place?" "have you moved?" "I can't see you" ) but still leaves you with privacy by default.

[adjkant]

Many apps do it, I just use these two since I don't have Whatsapp.

That said, optimizing for privacy by default for an already limited allow-list is not the right way to conceptualize this. That need to explicitly make the choice to share is a friction point, not a feature. What if my friend forgets? What if it's needed over an hour? Why does my possibly tipsy friend need to decide how long I need their location for in the moment? On by default is an explicit feature once you explicitly allow, and the need to grant each time is a bug. Google's original product appeared to strike a balance here with the "on by default but possible to reject" model pictured in the article which is interesting. Still, they understood they made an on by default product and the user value clearly.

For friends father away on the social graph, those temporary shares are also great too! iMessage/Find My Friends has this and I use it exactly as you describe. But it's two separate use cases.

[lucasverra]

> Many apps do it, I just use these two since I don't have Whatsapp.

Careful, you are handing your gps location at all time (to facebook) with that option (using IOS). I like the feature but i'm not using it anymore, just one shot location sharing from me

[adjkant]

I think you misread - I don't have Whatsapp, and Facebook is a good part of that reason personally :)

You're 100% correct though - if you use an app for this, you also need to trust the app owner!

[renewiltord]

Google location sharing defaults to an hour.

[prox]

Ah I see, for a trusted friend group that could work. Thanks for sharing!