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Have you ever been on vacation only to find out later that one of your dearest friends had been nearby while you were there? If only you had known the two of you were there you could have joined up to make your trip even better.
Facebook wants to help you connect with your friends in real life as well as on its site. The company announced last week that a new feature will be rolling out to its iOS and Android apps soon: Nearby Friends.
Nearby Friends is a feature within the Facebook app that will alert you when one of your Facebook friends is in your vicinity. The feature will first become available on Facebook apps in the US.
[tip] Don’t confuse Nearby Friends with Close Friends. Nearby Friends refers to location, Close Friends refers to your relationship status. [/tip]
Nearby Friends is reciprocal. You can’t see which friends are nearby unless you share your location with your friends.
Setting Up Nearby Friends
After your app has been updated to include this feature, you will need to set it up to allow others to see your location and to find Nearby Friends.
To turn on Nearby Friends, open your Facebook app on your iPhone or Android and:
- Tap the three-bar More icon at the bottom of the screen
- Tap Nearby Friends
- Tap
- Tap Location Sharing
- Choose which friends you want to share your location with
You have a choice of sharing your location with Friends, Close Friends or a Friends List.
➙ See, Fix Your Flooded Facebook Feed (Without Unfriending Anyone) for information about how to set up a Friends List.
Setting up a Friend List may be handy to get alerts for Facebook friends you want to connect with using this feature. For example, if you’re Facebook friends with a lot of your neighbors, you don’t want an alert every time you arrive back home. Or, if you’re Facebook friends with a lot of your co-workers, you may not want everyone to be tracking each other’s arrival and departure from the office.
You can find out more information about Nearby Friends from the Facebook Nearby Friends Help page.
Precise Location
Nearby Friends only alerts you when Facebook friends are close by, but does not automatically reveal their exact location. However, if you’re trying to meet up with a friend and you need to show them where to find you, you can allow your friend to see your Precise Location on a map.
To turn on Precise Location:
- Tap the three bar More icon at the bottom of the screen
- Tap Nearby Friends
- Tap
next to your nearby friend’s name - Set the duration where your location will be visible to your friend.
When you share your Precise Location with a friend, they’ll be able to see where you are on a map.
If you’re not comfortable with constantly making your location known, no worries. You can limit the time period when your location will be visible to your friend.
You also have an option to send your friend a message that they’ll receive when they are alerted that you’ve shared your location with them.
[note] Unlike the general Nearby Friends feature, Precise Location is not reciprocal. You can share your Precise Location with your friends but they don’t have to share their Precise Location with you. [/note]
You can turn off Precise Location sharing at any time. Tap next to your friend’s name, then tap Stop Sharing This.
For more information on Precise Location, visit the Facebook Help Page for Precise Location.
Location History
When you enable Nearby Friends, Facebook keeps track of your Location History, even after you close the app. If you want to preserve your battery life and/or aren’t comfortable with Facebook compiling your Location History, you can turn this feature off.
To turn off Location History:
- Tap the three bar More icon at the bottom of the screen
- Tap Nearby Friends
- Tap
- Tap Location Sharing
- Tap to turn Location History off
Use Nearby Friends Even When Friends Aren’t Nearby
Your friends don’t have to be nearby for you to use Nearby Friends. Let’s say you’re traveling to Tuamotu-Gambier, French Polynesia for the first time (see above photo) and you remember that your Facebook friend Matt was there last year. You can share your Precise Location with him to get recommendations on places to visit, where to eat, best scuba diving locations and other travel tips, even if he is thousands of miles away from you.
Poll
Are you looking forward to using Facebook Nearby Friends? Vote in The Wonder of Tech poll and let us know:
Your Thoughts
What do you think of Facebook’s Nearby Friends feature? Are you excited to be able to meet up with your friends in real life? Are you comfortable with sharing your location with others? Have you received the update to your Facebook app yet? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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Waterlogue
Did you catch Friday’s Wonder of Tech article by guest author Kaarina Dillabough, Waterlogue Transforms Your Photos into Beautiful Watercolors!? Have you been playing around with Waterlogue since then?
I have and couldn’t resist using Waterlogue on the French Polynesia photo I used for this article:
I used the Bold filter for this photo on the Waterlogue app.
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*French Polynesia picture courtesy of Éole Wind
Hi Carolyn,
This does sound like a nice feature, but as you mentioned, it’s again one of the iOS and Android apps and would be there just for the people in US presently.
I liked the idea of knowing who is nearby, especially when you are out on vacation or nearby such places and can catch up with friends this way. I know my kids would love it as they are more mobile friendly as compared to me. Perhaps they roll this feature gradually to the other countries too once they see how it takes up in the US, so we would look forward to it.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, I imagine if this feature is successful, Facebook will expand it beyond the US. We’re the guinea pigs here, testing the feature. I don’t have it yet, but I’m thinking the update should reach me sometime soon.
Great point, I can see how this would be embraced by kids who may use it to find friends at movie theaters, concerts, restaurants, shopping malls and other places. We also may be able to use it as parents to learn when our children are arriving home from school, etc.
Great info as always, Carolyn, and thanks for letting me “play in your house” with my Waterlogues. I hope others find it as fun and engaging:) Cheers! Kaarina
Hi Kaarina, Thanks again for your wonderful Waterlogue article on Friday. As you can see, I continue to be inspired by your article! 🙂
Hi Carolyn Nicander Mohr ,
Am very first time at your blog got very impressed.
No doubt a vacation trip is incomplete without the dear ones.Getting a closed one with the help of a facebook would feel like heaven on the earth.
Great tips.keep Posting.
Hi Carolyn,
This looks like a very interesting feature. I am just back from a vacation in Denmark, and I’ve heard that several of my friends were fairly close by without us knowing. I can see how this feature would have been great for our vacation, especially for our kids who could have met some of their friends back home 🙂
And, it’s optional, we don’t need to use it if we don’t want to.
You’re the first one telling me about this one Carolyn, thanks 🙂
– Jens
Hi Jens, Yes, your trip to Denmark is a perfect example of when Nearby Friends would come in handy. I hope Facebook’s roll out goes quickly and the feature becomes available for everyone soon!
I definitely would OPT-OUT ON THIS ONE ..I’m sorry but this just seems way to personal for me , and above all scary!!! friend or not stay out of my bubble.
Hi Angelika, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! The good news is that the default is opt out so you don’t have to do anything when you get the update to your Facebook app.
Hi Carolyn,
Certainly a great app which let you know the location of your friends and helps you to have an unplanned meet up. 😉
Hi Pankaj, Yes, who would have thought that Facebook would gain a feature that lets you meet up with friends in real life? But this is a great way of doing just that because it is optional for people to use yet could come in very handy.
Hello Carloyn,
Another awesome post I guess, I love to connect with the facebook friends who are nearby and I’d try this soon.
Thanks
Hi Samir, I hope you get the update soon and enjoy connecting with your Facebook friends in real life!
I’m not sure whether I like this feature or not Carolyn!
I don’t think I’d like my Facebook friends to know where I am all the time.
I can see how it would be useful if I were going on holiday though.
At least it’s an optional feature and you can decide when and where you use it.
I’ll probably give it a try if it makes it to UK users :-).
Hi Tim, Yes, the good news about Nearby Friends is that you can turn it on and off when you want to use it and when you want don’t want to be found any more. Have you ever run into a friend when you were traveling? It’s a lot of fun (assuming you really like the friend) and this feature increases the chances that will happen.
Hello
I am one of those “weird” people that is not much into Facebook but this is a nice feature. I noticed that you used Android devices for the samples but is this feature also available for iOS? I am sure it is.
Hi Sergio, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Nothing weird about not being into Facebook. That happens to many people. Either they don’t “get” it from the beginning or they grow tired of Facebook over time.
Yes, the Android illustrations used in this article were from Facebook but the feature is coming to iOS as well. My Facebook app has not yet been updated to include Nearby Friends yet.
Hey Carolyn,
Probably won’t be using this one because if I’m going to be meeting up with someone then I’ll have planned that ahead of time and wouldn’t need an app for that. Now if someone was planning on being in my area I would hope they would let me know unless they just aren’t familiar with where I am.
It’s not like people can just drop by my house anyway because I live in a gated community and they would have to call me for me to let them in so either way I would need notice.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, whenever I get to your town, I definitely let you know! But I could also see using this when traveling to distant places, say on a cruise, where I might be nearby friends without even knowing it! 🙂
Hey Carolyn,
Nearby friends feature is something really good feature and helps us in finding our friends. I have no information about this feature but now Thanks to you for sharing this information. This feature is very helpful when we are in any vacations and with this we can meet our friends.
Hi Sudipto, I’m glad you found out about Nearby Friends from this article, Sudipto. I hope you get the update with this feature soon!
Hi Carolyn,
It’s a nice feature 🙂
I often meet up with my nearby friends, because I know them. I have their phone numbers as well.
I like this feature because not all of our Facebook friends are people we actually know. Well, half of all my Facebook friends, to be honest, I don’t know them. They suddenly send me a friend request. So, I never met with them as well.
Maybe I can surprise them if I use this feature, I was able to meet with them in person. LOL 😀
Thanks for sharing this post, Carolyn.
Have a nice weekend for you.
Nanda
Hi Nanda, Yes, you can limit revealing your location to a Facebook list or to specific friends instead of to all of your Facebook friends. You’re wise to be careful about revealing your location too broadly, especially to people you’ve never met, Nanda.