The Meta spokesperson confirmed the "Friend Map" feature, which was discovered by the reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi and reported. The opt-in feature, similar to Snapchat's Snap Map, will let users see where their friends are, live. However, the company says that this feature is an internal prototype not tested externally.

If Instagram indeed plans to launch the Friend Map, then it would just be stealing another highly used feature from Snapchat, which also copied the core stories functionality of the app when it released it back in 2016. And now, Instagram is also coming for Apple and its "Find My" feature that allows users to know where their friends and family currently are. This new feature would be another reason to spend more time on the app and less on other companies' services for Instagram.

Additionally, Instagram can snag people who were fans of the social map app known as Zenly, which Snap acquired and shut down last year.

Screenshots shared by Paluzzi on Threads show the way Instagram's Friend Map allows users to choose whom they want to see where they are. Screenshots of the feature also said the location data would end up being end-to-end encrypted. You could, according to screenshots, decide you want to share a location with followers who in return follow you, you Close Friends list or not. The map would be seen with a "Ghost Mode" that hides your last location in active status.

Users could post short notes on the map for others to read. Notes are short messages that, at the moment, appear on top of the feed of your direct message. In case the feature rolls out, users may have an option to put these short updates on the map. Some examples might be alerting friends to a fun pop-up shop you just discovered, or that new restaurant that you're currently at.

The news comes at a time when the social networking company has been working on enhancing its in-app map offering. The company has introduced a searchable map experience, through which users can discover popular tagged locations around them and further filter location results based on specific categories such as restaurants, cafes, and beauty salons. A week after Google's senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan said young users were using apps like Instagram and TikTok to discover new places, rather than Google Search or Maps, the company launched a searchable map.
Instagram may be looking to take on Snapchat and Apple with its Friend Map after cutting into one of Google's core businesses.