New Delhi : Whats app announced today that you’ll be able to share your location in real time with friends on your contact list, a popular feature borrowed from its parent company Facebook. The feature, called Live Location, should be available starting today and is coming to both the iOS and Android versions of WhatsApp. 

WhatsApp already lets users share their location with their contacts. But, the Facebook owned messaging platform makes things easier by rolling out a new location sharing feature.

WhatsApp, on Tuesday, introduces a real-time location sharing feature. With this feature, all the WhatsApp users will not only be able to know their friend’s location but also keep a tab on them until they reach their destination. By introducing this feature, WhatsApp is basically aiming to let people know that their friends and family members are safe.

For instance, consider a situation where you are out alone, maybe for a trip or something. With WhatsApp real-time location sharing feature you can share you can not only share your location, but a friend or family member you share with can actually get to know your location in real-time. To simplify, this means, in case you are in trouble and are stuck somewhere, the contact you shared your location with will get an idea that something is wrong as you are stuck in one location for quite some time. As a whole, WhatsApp’s live location works as a safety kit for users.

User safety has always been the key focus for WhatsApp. This is why, the new live location sharing feature, as claimed by WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, which means that the location that you share will be between you and the contact you share with and no one else can access the information. “When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, status updates, and calls are secured from falling into the wrong hands,” explains WhatsApp.

“This end-to-end encrypted feature lets you control who you share with and for how long. You can choose to stop sharing at any time or let the Live Location timer simply expires,” notes WhatsApp. The live location sharing in real-time feature is dynamic, unlike the already existing location sharing feature, which is static. But then, the users have full control on the new live location sharing feature. They can share location with anyone they want, and whenever they want, and then, they can also stop sharing their location just by clicking on “stop sharing” option.

Well, this is probably not the first application that has incorporated such a feature. Facebook Messenger, Telegram and also Apple’s iMessage allow its users share live location in real-time. So, the question is, how different is WhatsApp’s new real-time location sharing feature from the already existing ones? Well, to be honest, there is not much difference.