Instagram has focused on enhancing its messaging feature by introducing a row of new features, including the option to share your live location with your friends.
In November 2024, Instagram released a row of new features to enhance its direct messaging feature, including adding over 300 new stickers and giving users the option to give each other nicknames.
The third feature includes making it possible to share your live location with your friends through DMs. Instagram said that live location can only be shared privately in DMs, either in a one-on-one conversation or a group chat.
The live location expires automatically after an hour and cannot be forwarded to other chats. Additionally, the user sharing their live location can also choose to stop at any time.
How to share your live location in Instagram DMs
So, how do you go about sharing your location with your friends? Just follow these simple steps and let your friends know exactly where you are:
- Open Instagram and go to your DMs by pressing the button at the top right corner of your feed page
- Open the group chat where you want to share your location
- To share a live location, tap on the “+” button at the bottom of the conversation
- Tap on the “Location” option.
- Select “Share your location” at the bottom of the menu. Your location will be shared as a message in the chat.
- Tap View location below your message to see a larger map with your live location and the duration remaining.
- You can stop sharing your location by tapping “Stop sharing location.”
- To share a pinned location or a location by searching for an address, select the drop pin option or “Find a place” option from the Location menu.
You can now share your location with your friends on Instagram DMs
If you can’t find the location-sharing option on your app, don’t worry! Instagram has not yet listed which countries will get these new features, but it’s slowly being rolled out worldwide. Just make sure your app is up to date so you don’t miss the release in your country.
If you want to know more about how to use Instagram, check out our other guides including how to see your first-liked Instagram post and how to re-share a post to your Story on Instagram.