A new WhatsApp feature is on the way, but this might not be the sort of update you’d been hoping for.
Instead of giving you the ability to send GIFs more easily or letting you avoid your friends knowing when you’ve read and ignored their messages, the new feature will track your every movement.
Not only will it let WhatsApp know where you are at any given moment, it will allow your mates see your current location too, meaning those fake ‘can’t I’m still in the office’ excuses are no longer going cut it.
Although the feature, dubbed ‘Live Location Tracking’ has yet to be rolled out to all users, it has been spotted within the latest iOS and Android WhatsApp beta builds, showing it’s only a matter of time until it drops.
Set to be offered within regular or group chats, the Live Location feature will let those you’re chatting to view your current location in real-time.
Although WhatsApp already lets users share their current location, real-time tracing is a far more intimate metric and comes with increased privacy concerns.
Despite the thinking behind the feature being that it will make meeting up easier, it could also cause problems when it comes to those fibs about not going to the pub or meeting up with an old flame.
Fortunately, the Live Location Tracking won’t run in the background all the time.
Instead, the new addition will be an opt-in feature, with users able to activate the service in either 1 minute, 2 minute or 5 minute intervals.
This should allow you to share your location at times that suit you without compromising your privacy when you’d rather stay hidden.
Live Location Tracking isn’t the only new WhatsApp feature on the cards, either.
Recent reports have shown that the free messaging service will introduce new features that will let you edit and even recall messages that have already been sent.
Assuming the messages haven’t already been read, users will soon be able to edit what they’ve sent, great for when you get a bit of remorse about that angry message sent in haste.
Similarly, the Recall feature will only work on messages that haven’t been read.
Despite appearing in WhatsApp’s beta release, the Facebook-owned service has yet to confirm when the new features will be formally released.
It follows a recent WhatsApp update that now lets you send messages without an internet connection.
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