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Instagram Begins Phasing Out 'Photo Maps' From User Profiles

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Photo-sharing service Instagram has begun removing its GPS-aggregating "Photo Maps" feature from user profiles. Some of Instagram's users may have already noticed that Photo Maps is gone when visiting another profile, with Instagram confirming to Mashable that it began phasing out the feature last week.

instagram-photo-map-800x460.jpg

Photo Maps will remain on your own profile tab "for now," but the company is expected to begin removing it from there as well in the near future. The simple reason behind its removal is how little the feature was used by the social network's 500 million monthly active users, especially in comparison to popular features in the app, like the Explore tab.
"Photo Map was not widely used, so we've decided to remove the feature and focus on other priorities," the company said in a statement.
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The company confirmed that geotagged locations in individual Instagram posts will remain, so "you'll still be able to click on a location tag in an individual post and see other photos from that location as well as a small map." The move is believed to be a part of the social network's move towards capturing ground from rival Snapchat, while leaving behind parts of its service that don't generate much in the way of user activity.

Article Link: Instagram Begins Phasing Out 'Photo Maps' From User Profiles
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/07/instagram-phasing-out-photo-maps/
Well, Apple has this feature baked into iOS. The only thing apple's does not have is the ability to share it without taking screenshots. Sometimes I find myself easier to find a photo through browsing maps than scrolling through long list of photos.
 
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Bummer. I've been trying to figure out why the Photo Map button is gone from my profile, but nothing has come up on Google.

This explains it. I'm one of those who used it. It seems simple enough to keep around.

I must have deleted the app and rebooted the phone 10 times in an effort to bring it back.

I'm beginning to think they killed it early on my profile because I've been writing IG about a particular glitch in Photo Maps. If true, that's funny.
 
facebook ruined instagram for me by killing the chronological order of everything. it was the only social media i personally enjoyed and now i'm simply not opening it up throughout the day like i did before. i just keep seeing the same posts. from 1-2 days ago. bugger all that.
 
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Shirasaki said:
Well, Apple has this feature baked into iOS. The only thing apple's does not have is the ability to share it without taking screenshots. Sometimes I find myself easier to find a photo through browsing maps than scrolling through long list of photos.
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The Photos app in earlier versions of iOS would let you see a map with pins for the geolocations of all the photos in your Camera Roll. Now it's by year at most, and if you have lots of photos in a given year, you have to select a smaller sub-group of photos.
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mms13 said:
Well this is super disappointing for me :(

I loved looking at this is remember all the places I've traveled. Imagine your photo map after 30+ years of traveling the world, I've actually thought about that. Here's hoping Apple will never remove the built-in one.
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I really liked this feature and used it as a travel map too.
 
One of the best features of Instagram, I use it quite often to look at old photos..

But they seem quite focused on destroying everything good with the service asap,
so don't know why I feel surprised..

The new feed is horrible, the snapchat-feature is annoying and I can't opt out..
 
Photomaps was a privacy risk anyway. You can figure out and guess where a person lives by looking at their photomap.

I tried this on one of my coworker friend who posts a lot of baby and family photos. She was shocked when I asked her if she lived between these two streets. Well I think she was more shocked when I told her Instagram was actually public and not friends only.
 
I don't use Instagram, but nobody is stalking my iPhoto app that would show where pictures have been taken at. I travel quite a bit and it is cool to see it on a world map.
 
UbuntuFu said:
Photomaps was a privacy risk anyway. You can figure out and guess where a person lives by looking at their photomap.

I tried this on one of my coworker friend who posts a lot of baby and family photos. She was shocked when I asked her if she lived between these two streets. Well I think she was more shocked when I told her Instagram was actually public and not friends only.
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Yes. But how is that our problem, when some people are too stupid to turn off the things they don't want to have shared? And really, if security is the only issue, it could be turned off by default and the people wanting it, could turn it on.

I also use the photo map as a travel map and started to upload pictures from most places I've been. I enjoyed seeing my map grow and now it's all for nothing? And not even a real reason given as to why. Just because not all 500 Mio. users use it?? There should be some protest.
 
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Well this is super disappointed! I'm using maps feature quite often to look on places I've visited. In two weeks instagram removing completely and destroying my favorite feature on it.
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I'm ready to find the new app that love travelers, photos and maps.
#yesformaps #protest!
 
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