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Facebook Messenger's Live Location helps you track friends

A new Messenger feature announced Monday updates friends' locations on a map as they move.

Mike Sorrentino Senior Editor
Mike Sorrentino is a Senior Editor for Mobile, covering phones, texting apps and smartwatches -- obsessing about how we can make the most of them. Mike also keeps an eye out on the movie and toy industry, and outside of work enjoys biking and pizza making.
Expertise Phones, texting apps, iOS, Android, smartwatches, fitness trackers, mobile accessories, gaming phones, budget phones, toys, Star Wars, Marvel, Power Rangers, DC, mobile accessibility, iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, RCS
Mike Sorrentino
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Facebook will let friends show each other exactly where they are, even while they are moving.

Facebook

Facebook is making it easier to answer the question, "Hey buddy, where are you?"

The social media company announced Monday that it's adding a Live Location feature into its Messenger app, designed to help bring people together when they might not know how far apart they are.

The Messenger app already lets you send your current location to a friend, but the new feature expands on that by updating your spot on a map as you move. The feature will remain turned on for an hour, and friends receiving the location will also see an estimate of how long it would take to get to the person's location by car.

The feature, which Facebook said is rolling out globally to iOS and Android, will let you send your current location to one or more friends at a time.

This feature is similar to one already available in a variety of apps, including Apple's Find My Friends, Glympse and most recently Google Maps.