Later this month, Facebook began notifying users about the closure of several features. Some will be permanently removed from the social network’s servers…
In early May, Facebook for iOS and Android sent out an in-app notification about the removal of several features.
They were first noticed by social media expert Matt Navarra when he saw an alert in his notification.
They are primarily related to “Friends Nearby” which is a feature that allows users to share their current location with other Facebook friends.
Launched in 2014, it displays a list of friend places by neighborhood, or if the friend is far enough from the city. By tapping on a friend, you can send them a message to arrange a meeting. For example, if you’re trying to find yourself in a large park, you can tap the location arrow button to send your exact location to a friend. If Friends Nearby You is enabled, Facebook will also send you a push notification if someone is nearby.
Other Location-Based Features ServiceAlso affected by this bandh from May 31, 2022 Including time alerts, location history and background location.
Remember that Facebook’s “Friends Nearby” feature made its market debut at a time when location-based social networking apps were booming.
While you’d think that today’s consumers would generally be less excited about sharing their location through these features, that’s not the case. It’s just that Facebook hasn’t won the market, unlike Snapchat.
Indeed, the popularity of “Friends Nearby” naturally declined in the years following the launch of similar features such as Snapchat’s Snap Map and Apple’s Find My Friends.
Why remove these features?
According to spokesman Emil Vazquez at ledge ,
“AliWhile we are removing some location-based features on Facebook due to low usage, people can still use location services to manage how their location information is collected and used.
Facebook will always offer relevant advertising and location records in accordance with its Data Policy. It will still be possible to view, download or delete all location data recorded by the Platform in the Settings and Privacy menu. Otherwise Facebook will automatically delete all stored data related to its discontinued services on August 1.
Some data, such as a user’s location history, will be available for download through 1st August 2022. For example, this history automatically uses your location to map the places you’ve visited. After that, Facebook indicates that this data will be deleted.
In fact, even if Facebook’s application stops collecting users’ location soon, location data will still be collected “for other experiences.” It will also always be possible to deactivate the access of the Facebook application to your location by accessing the iOS privacy settings.
So removing these features doesn’t mean that Meta will stop collecting users’ location information anytime soon. Meta’s notice to Facebook users noted that Meta will continue to collect location information for other experiences.
However, if you are concerned about how Facebook collects your information, it is always possible to manually disable Facebook’s access to your location. For this :
- Go to your device’s privacy settings;
- disable application access;
- Find the tab with your location settings.
That’s why you can disable or re-enable Facebook’s access to your location at any time.
The company confirmed that the shutdown is global in nature and began as gradual as the end of a Facebook podcast this May.