Meta discontinues location-based features on Facebook

Facebook began notifying users that Nearby Friends and other location-based features would be phased off by the end of the month. While the reasons for this are still unknown, Facebook states that all data associated with these services will be removed from its servers.

The sources received confirmation from Facebook parent company Meta. “While we’re deprecating several location-based features on Facebook due to low usage,” Facebook spokesperson Emil Vazquez said in an emailed statement. “People may still use Location Services to manage how their location information is gathered and used.”

According to Facebook’s data policy, it will “continue collecting location information for other experiences” in order to give up relevant adverts and location check-ins. Within the Settings and Privacy menu, you can see, download, or erase any location data the platform has saved.

By August 1, 2022, some of the data, such as the user’s location, history (which uses your location to automatically construct a map of places you’ve been), will be available for download. The data will then be erased, according to Facebook.

Nearby Friends, introduced by Facebook in 2014, allows you to share your real-time location with your friends  and vice versa with the goal of arranging in-person hangouts with people in your immediate vicinity. Its popularity faded over time as rival applications such as Snapchat’s Snap Map and Apple’s Find My Friends gained traction.