What It Means & How To Enable It

Snapchat offers a privacy feature called Ghost Mode, enabling users to hide their location from others. Snap Map was introduced in 2017 as a means to share Snaps worldwide through “Our Story.” An additional function of this feature allows users to share their location with friends in real time when using the app. Their Bitmoji appears on Snap Map, allowing others to view their Snaps, stories, friends, and places – whatever is live and available at that given time.

While Snap Map offers creative ways for friends to connect and communicate, there are risks present in location sharing if a user is unaware of their privacy settings. For instance, if a user has their settings set to share with everyone, then their location is marked on the Snap Map to anyone who comes across their name, Bitmoji, story etc. This could be a friend, a friend of a friend, or a complete stranger. Luckily, Snapchat recognized this potential threat from the get-go, and offers users several privacy options to keep their locations as private as they like, the most elusive being Ghost Mode.

Related: Does Snapchat Notify Users When You Look At Their Location?

Snapchat users may be uncomfortable at the thought of their exact location being shared worldwide, and for all to see at this very moment. However, there’s a quick and easy way to ghost everyone for those who value their privacy (or at the very least, the right to control it). Ghost Mode is a full privacy mode that makes your presence on the Snap Map visible to you alone. No one else can see where you are, not even your Snapchat friends.

To enable this feature, swipe right twice from the camera screen to Snap Map. Next, tap the gear icon in the top right corner to open Settings. Lastly, turn Ghost Mode on. When you choose to enable Ghost Mode, you’ll notice that a window pops up with various timer options, including three hours, 24 hours, or until turned off. The timer allows you to choose how long you want to stay off the grid, whether it’s just to lay low for a few hours or vanish for the foreseeable future.

There are more relaxed privacy settings also available beneath Ghost Mode in the Snap Map settings window. You can choose to share your location with all of your Snapchat friends – this includes any additional friends added in the future, but not people who have added you as a friend that you haven’t added back. Another option available is to share with friends, but with exceptions. In this mode, you can choose specific Snapchat friends to exclude from seeing your location. The last option is to choose specific friends. In this mode, only the friends you explicitly choose will be able to view your location. As a result, there are plenty of ways to ensure Snapchat only reveals the information you’re comfortable sharing.

Hide Your Live Location On Snapchat

While Ghost Mode prevents friends on Snapchat from seeing your location on Snap Map, there’s also a Live Location feature that shares your live location with select friends. Even if Ghost Mode is enabled, friends you’ve selected to share your live location with can still see you on Snap Map. If you want to disable this, open Snap Map and tap the Settings icon in the top right corner. Scroll down to ‘My live location‘ and turn on the toggle next to ‘Hide my live location.’

Doing this will turn off your live location for all friends. If you’re currently sharing their live location with a specific Snapchat friend, you can also tap ‘Stop‘ next to their name to stop sharing. If Ghost Mode isn’t enabled, and you turn off live location sharing, Snapchat says friends you’ve shared your location with will be able to see your Last Active Location on Snap Map.

Source: Snapchat