Facebook recently announced that the Nearby Friends feature will no longer be available by the end of May. Aside from that, the rest of the location-based features will also be affected by these changes.
Facebook Nearby Friends is Going Away Soon
While the decision to phase out this feature is already final, Facebook has not yet disclosed the reason why it arrived at this conclusion. When this happens, users can no longer use any related features from the servers.
According to a report by 9to5Mac, Facebook might be notifying the users now regarding the discontinuity of the feature. Some of them reportedly received a notification that the Nearby Friends will bid goodbye next month.
That's not the only thing that's going away soon, as the social media giant says that it will include Background Location, Time Alerts, and Location History in the list.
"Nearby Friends and Weather alerts will no longer be available after May 31, 2022. Information you shared that was used for these experiences, including Location History and Background Location, will stop being collected after May 31, 2022, even if you have previously enabled them," Facebook writes.
In case you want to retrieve your data including your location history, you can download it right away on Aug. 1.
All the data that you haven't downloaded past this data will be automatically deleted from the platform. Our advice is to download all the data that you need as early as now.
Speaking of data collection, it seems that Facebook won't easily ditch its practice of gathering your location. Unfortunately, the collected location data will now go to "for other experiences."
If you want this to stop, you can immediately head to the Privacy settings of your iOS device. From there, disable access to your location data.
Related Article: Facebook's 'Nearby Friends' real-time location-sharing feature is pretty neat
How to Use Nearby Friends
According to the support page of Facebook, using Nearby Friends allows you to share your location with your friends and other people. To use it, just follow these steps.
- Begin by switching on Location services and Background Location.
- Then, from the top right corner, click the icon with three horizontal lines.
- After that, turn on Nearby Friends. You can also switch it off if you want.
For iOS users, the process is almost the same, but here's what you need to remember.
- Turn on your location access to Always.
- Again, look for the three-horizontal line icon, but this time, it's located in the bottom right.
- Click the Nearby Friends icon. To explore deeper, tap See more.
- Besides your name, click the three dots in the top right.
- Click the Settings to begin switching on and off the feature.
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Written by Joseph Henry
