Near By Friends Location On Facebook | How to Find Nearby Friends on Facebook?

How to Find Nearby Friends on Facebook? A few days earlier, I explained how your iPhone monitors your location. Facebook also has this feature. “Nearby Friends” on Facebook mobile lets friends know when you are nearby.

If you have the Facebook app installed on your phone, you can access this feature (iPhone or Android). Since Nearby Friends is an opt-in feature, it is inactive unless you turn it on.

Let’s take a closer look at Nearby Friends, including what it might mean for teens.

Facebook nearby friends

HOW NEARBY FRIENDS WORKS ON THE FACEBOOK MOBILE APP

Nearby friends is found within the Facebook app on the “More” tab at the bottom.  Click the “more” tab and then you’ll see Nearby Friends.  If turned off, you’ll be prompted to turn it on.

Nearby Friends in the Facebook mobile app

Screen showing how to turn on Nearby Friends in Facebook app

Once on, you’ll see a list of Nearby Friends—those on your Facebook friends list who have also decided to turn on this feature.  (This means you won’t see all your friends listed here.)

List of Nearby Friends on Facebook

(Faces blurred because they don’t want to admit they know me ;-))

Click the settings icon in the upper right corner (as in the screenshot above).  This is where you can choose who can see your location.  For example, if you have set up lists in Facebook, you can choose to share your location with just that particular list, such as Close Friends.  The default is “friends,” as shown on the left; just select and then choose from your available lists.

Chose which friends get to see if you're nearby  Choose Close Friends list in the Nearby Friends feature to limit who can see your whereabouts

You can also share your precise location with a friend if you wish. For example, you might see that a friend is nearby, and you want to meet up with them.  Click the arrow icon next to their name, and then choose how long they can see your every move.

Click the arrow to share location with a nearby friend

fbnearbyfriendssharedetails

This video from Tech Crunch shows exactly how this works.

HOW TO TURN OFF NEARBY FRIENDS IN FACEBOOK

If you’ve used Nearby Friends and decided it’s not for you, just turn the feature off. Follow the same steps (More tab > Nearby Friends > Settings) and then slide the slider to the left until the slider is no longer green.

Turn off Nearby Friends and check Location Settings

The tiny text on the screen lets you know that even though you have turned off Nearby Friends, the app is still building a “history of your precise location even when you’re not using the app.”.  If you feel this is a bit intrusive, take a look at the location settings.

On the Location Settings screen, slide the slider to the left to turn off Location History.  This doesn’t delete your previously saved history; that is still lurking around on your Activity Log.  While you are the only one who can see this log (it is not shared with friends), you can remove your history if you prefer.

Turn Location History off in the Facebook App

To get to the history log, click the “More” tab again, scroll all the way down, and find Activity Log. Choose the filter at the top, and select Location History (it’s near the bottom of the list).  Once selected, you’ll have a filtered view of your activity that only shows location history. Select “Clear Location History” (shown here).

Facebook Activity Log on mobile app

TEENS AND NEARBY FRIENDS

If you have a teen who is on Facebook, now is a good time to go through their friends list. Teens have a higher likelihood of having a large number of Facebook friends. Their friend list is likely to be more of a “random acquaintance” list. They could be informing hundreds of people about their whereabouts. Unless they are selective in adding friends, they may be disclosing their general location to more people than you would like (or they even realize).

Again, this is an opt-in feature, so discuss with your teen whether or not they should use it if they have Facebook on their phone.

If they do, perhaps restricting the sharing to “close friends” is a good idea.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you think this feature is a good idea? If you think you might find this useful, as the young hipsters in the TechCrunch video do when they meet for coffee, you should enable this feature.

I only see value if the majority of your friends use Facebook on the go and enable this feature. If you’re concerned about privacy and sharing your location data with others, even if they’re friends, or if you don’t think you’ll ever use it, turn it off.

How Nearby Friends Works

Once Nearby Friends is available, you’ll find it in the “More” section of the Facebook navigation menu on your mobile device, either on iOS or Android. You may then turn on Nearby Friends and choose whether you want to share your location with all of your friends or just a selected friend list or group.

You’ll next see a Nearby Friends list that displays the distance to everyone you’re sharing your location with who has also opted in and switched on Nearby Friends in mile increments (0.5 miles, 0.7 miles, 1.8 miles). The list also includes timestamps for when someone’s location was last requested, as well as their neighbourhood if you’re in a big town.

You can tap the location icon next to these friends’ names to send them your current position. You’ll be able to specify how long you want to disclose your whereabouts (an hour, a few hours, until tomorrow, until I manually stop), as well as include a 40-character note about what you’re doing or want to do, as well as a request that they send you their exact location. Alternatively, you might send someone a Facebook message requesting their location. Anyone who gives you their exact coordinates will appear on a map view.

What sets Facebook Nearby Friends apart from competitors and may give it an edge is that it focuses on broadcasting vicinity rather than location. We’re a lot more eager to share how close we are to someone than we are to a map, and it’s almost as useful. You’ll know if someone is close by, and you’ll be able to notify them about their exact location and meeting time. We’re less likely to broadcast our whereabouts because it’s scary, and it can lead to awkward drop-ins when someone comes to see you when you don’t want them to. The product only works if a large number of people use it, and the proximity focus makes it personal enough that they could use it.

5 Essential Things You Should Know About Facebook Nearby Friends

One of the most used features on Facebook is the Nearby Friends feature. It helps give you information on where your friend is and if he/she is nearby. In actuality, one can utilise this feature to track anyone’s location. You can find this feature on the Facebook app. This feature helps you track your friend’s proximity and location. This means it is now easy to link up with your friends via Facebook.

Here’s some quick facts you should know about Facebook’s nearby friends:

Best way to make use of the Nearby Feature

Firstly, for the nearby friends feature to work effectively, you need to be able to share your location with your Facebook friends and ensure they do exactly the same thing. To enable ‘nearby friend’ to function, head to ‘the more tab’ on your Facebook app and search for the nearby friends on the menu to enable it. If your friend has enabled this feature, then he or she will see you and your location. The nearby friend will precisely display the last time your friend logged in and show information on the precise location of your friend.

Sharing Precise Location At Stipulated Time

So if you are not comfortable with location sharing every time, but for a specific meeting or event at a particular point in time, you can use Nearby Friends to set the time, which you can track. If you want to share a specific location at a stipulated point in time, you can use the Nearby Friends feature. This way, you can search for the exact location of your friends on the map and find out the point in time they will arrive at the venue of the meeting and the estimated time they will arrive.

Read: Marketplace Buy and Sell – Marketplace Facebook Near Me Buy Sell

Use Of Your Data

Free lunch does not exist. The truth is that Facebook uses your location data for advertising or marketing purposes. This could be bad because Facebook has some notoriety with regards to handling user data.

Facebook Features That Use Location Info

Other Facebook features utlise location to effectively function. Some examples are Facebook Messenger, Check-in, Status Update, and Nearby places. When you share a status with Facebook messenger, it is important to note that your location is automatically turn on.

So, the fact remains that your location is shared with Facebook when you use these features.

Better Alternatives 

Other applications provide the same service as Facebook nearby friends. These applications revolve around sharing of location. The name of these apps are listed below:

  • Circle – This is an app which users can use to discover any event going on in their city or vicinity. Through this app, you can even find out if your friends will be present at the event.
  • Banjo – This apps can furnish you with all the details about current events and latest stories on social networks via location.
  • Connect – Connect lives up to its name. The app links all your friends on social media into a single map. This means you can find out which of your friends is available around you.

Issues with Privacy

For Nearby Friends to properly work, you will have to share your location. Although, you can chose to share your nearby location with your specific friend lists or the general location. Please ensure you exercise caution as you expose your location and data. Thankfully, the feature is optional.

 

Conclusion

In this article, we shared ways you can use Facebook to monitor your friends location using the “nearby friends” feature.

This feature can be accessed via your mobile device (whether iOS or Android. However, you have to enable it to properlyuse it.

Read also: 

How do I make my Profile private on Facebook?

How to change facebook account password

 

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