WhatsApp brings a new feature empowering women and kids - ‘Live Location'

WhatsApp made its next move to help women and kids connect with their friends and families whilst they travel. So, what is that move? WhatsApp introduced ‘Live Location’ feature.

This feature helps people share location in real-time with friends and family. People can control what they share with others and for how long with the help of end-to-end encryption feature and with Live Location you can choose the timer to expire or stop sharing locations.                                 

Sohini Bhattacharya, CEO of Breakthrough, a non-profit organisation said "The Live Location feature in WhatsApp makes women feel confident about sharing their real-time location or a journey with someone close, so that it can be tracked for a purpose and privately."

How does the feature work?

Open a chat with the person or group you want to share with. Under "Location" in the attach button, there's a new option to "Share Live Location". You can choose for how long you want to chat and tap send. Everyone can see your location in the map and if multiple people share their live locations in the group then they will collectively be visible in the same map. 

"For women, in unsafe and dangerous situations, it may be a helpful tool for police officials and families, as real-time locations can be shared easily in WhatsApp," said Ranjana Kumari from Centre for Social Research.