Real-time location sharing is becoming increasingly common within the Android version of Google Messages. The feature, which allows users to share their whereabouts with contacts, has been rolling out throughout the past few weeks.
When available, users will notice a dot on the “plus” menu within conversations. A new “real-time location” pill, distinguished by a green icon, has been added to the attachment options. Google has retained the option to share a static location via a Google Maps link, labeling it as “single location.”
Selecting the real-time location option displays a live map that can be expanded to take up most of the screen. A dropdown menu below allows users to choose the duration of sharing: one hour, today only, until manually turned off, or a custom duration.
Tapping “Send” adds an interactive map to the conversation thread, which recipients can expand to view. Recipients will receive a message notification stating “View my real-time location.”
Google has also included a prominent banner at the bottom of the app interface to inform users if their location is currently being shared, and for how long. This addition underscores the importance of user awareness regarding location data.
The rollout of Google Messages’ real-time location sharing has included both extensive testing and stable availability over the last several days.
Google Messages Dot
To signal the feature’s availability, Google is marking conversations with two dots. These dots will disappear once location sharing has ended, requiring someone to actively share their location for them to remain visible. If only one person is sharing their location, the dots will not disappear.
This behavior is an interesting growth hack, and may be a bug or a slightly deceptive design choice.
FTC：我們使用自動聯盟連結來賺取收入。 更多的
