Facebook will end “Nearby Friends” and other features

Facebook is informing its users that several location-related features will be discontinued, including “Friends Nearby”. The social network does not give a specific reason.

Discontinuation of some Facebook functions

The users received a notification of the Facebook app for iOS and Android regarding the end of “Friends Nearby”, a feature that allows people to share their current location with other friends on Facebook. At the same time, the social network also indicates that time alerts, location history and background location “will soon disappear”.

Alerts for Nearby Friends and weather will no longer be available after May 31, 2022. Information you shared that was used for these experiences, including location history and background location, will no longer be available. be collected after May 31, 2022, even if you have previously activated them.

Also, Facebook says that certain data, such as user location history (which automatically uses your location to create a map of places visited), will be available for download until August 1, 2022. After that date, Facebook says the data will be deleted.

These changes do not mean that Facebook will stop collecting location data. Indeed, the group says that this information will always be collected “for other experiences”without going into details.