All You Need to know about Instagram's New feature: Friends Map (and Keep Your Location Safe)
No Reason to Panic: Here’s All You Need to know about Instagram's New feature: Friends Map (and Keep Your Location Safe)
What even is Instagram's Friends Map?
Instagram just rolled out a new feature called Friends Map (also called Instagram Map), available in the U.S. starting August 6, 2025, with global rollouts soon to follow. It shows your last active location—not where you're headed in real-time—but only if you choose to opt in . By default this feature is turned off.
Even if you're not sharing, the map still surfaces location-tagged stories, reels, posts, or notes from people you follow—available for 24 hours. This will be the places you tag, like a restaurant, or your city. It does not give people your home address.
Location sharing is off unless you opt in. If you do share location with friends, you have controls to customize this experience:
• You choose who you share your location with: friends (followers you follow back), Close Friends, Only selected friends, or no one.
• You can choose to not share location in specific places or with specific people.
• If you use location sharing, your location is updated whenever you open the app or return to the app if it’s been running in the background. You can turn off location sharing at any time.
• If you’re a parent with supervision set up for your teen, you have control over their location sharing experience on the map. You will receive a notification if your teen starts sharing their location, giving you the opportunity to have important conversations about how to safely share with friends. You can decide whether your teen has access to location sharing on the map and see who your teen is sharing their location with.
Why people are feeling 🔥 about it (and what’s true vs. actually true)
There’s been serious confusion and worry in the comments about this feature—even though Instagram says:
It’s off by default, and must be manually switched on..
You control who sees your location: choose from mutual followers, Close Friends, selected people, or “no one.” You can also block specific people or places.
Your location updates only when you open the app (or return to it if it's running in the background)—this isn’t live tracking as some feared.
Still, rumors have circulated that people are showing up on the map unprompted. Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed the feature is opt-in, but Meta is investigating concerns over unexpected visibility.
How to control (or completely turn off) Friends Map
Love that you can tweak this, especially if you're a business or brick-and-mortar owner... or if you're just not up for sharing your whereabouts.
To toggle it off (or on):
Open Instagram → tap the DM icon (top right).
Tap the Map tab at the top of your inbox.
Tap the settings icon in the map’s top right.
Choose who can see your location—or pick "No one" to disable it.
For more privacy, you can also disable location permissions:
On iPhone: go to Settings → Privacy → Location Services → Instagram → choose Never.
On Android: go to Settings → Apps → Instagram → Permissions → Location → choose Don’t allow.
Is it safe—or even worth opting into?
For many folks, especially those who value privacy or have been targeted in the past, this feature can feel like over-sharing. Voices online reflect the tension.
Safety pros echo that sentiment:
Teens and women are particularly vulnerable to privacy risks (stalking, harassment, doxxing).
Even well-intentioned sharing can feel unsafe when boundaries aren’t rock solid.
That said—if you’ve got a brick-and-mortar shop or host in-person events, this could be a fun way to highlight your vibe and make it easier for followers to drop by. Just be ultra conscious of where you’re comfortable sharing, and double-check the settings when in doubt.
TL;DR (Because life is busy)
Instagram’s new Friends Map launched August 6, 2025 in the U.S.—it's off by default and shows your last active location, not live tracking.
You only share if you opt in, and you pick who sees it. Location updates only when you open the app.
You can access settings in DMs → Map → (settings icon) and choose who sees your location—or disable it completely.
For extra privacy, disable location access in your phone’s settings.
→ Great for local biz visibility, but also raises real safety concerns if you don’t review it regularly.
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Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, which helps small entrepreneurs grow their business through content marketing, especially email and Instagram.
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Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy.