10 Yetis Insight - "Nearby Friends" is this the creepiest new Facebook roll out yet?

Facebook’s newest feature ‘Nearby Friends’ has started rolling out on the shores of the UK, and some are more than concerned that it’s a little creepy. Head Yeti Andy noticed it pop up on his iPhone this morning and here we are now filling you in with all you need to know about the feature and if it’s really as creepy as it sounds.

The feature is available on both Android and iOS, and users will be getting the update soon. It will be available in ‘limited locations’ which we interpret as certain countries only. The feature allows you to see when your Facebook friends are nearby, so if someone you know is in the same city as you you’ll receive notifications that they are nearby so you can message, see them on a map, and meet up. Sounds creepy right?

Well luckily, you have to turn on this feature yourself from within your settings, and your friends will have to enable it too so that you can see them and they, you. They choose specifically whether to share location information with you.

So how do you use Nearby friends? If you want to let people follow you round, or if you want to follow people… We’re totally joking. Please don't do that. On your app click the more options button (aka the hamburger), and then click ‘Nearby Friends’ and then you can scroll through to see who is nearby. Also in this section of your app is the option to turn this feature off. You just need to click the settings wheel and you can select to turn it on or off. Also you can click on certain friends that you want to share your location with, and set how long you want to share your location for.

Facebook adds this: “Note: Turning on Nearby Friends also turns on Location History. When Location History is on, Facebook will add your precise location to your activity log, even if you leave the app.”

Something to be aware of if you don’t want to be continually tracked.

This feature is also being used to entice local and small businesses to use the advertising features on Facebook. It is launching a new feature in the insights tab on pages to let businesses better understand the people that are near their store. It will help them to know when their neighbourhood is busiest as well as the people’s age and gender and whether they are a resident or a visitor to the area. It will keep all other data anonymous, like the actual identity of the people.

Facebook said: “Now, for the first time, advertisers can see the percentage of people nearby who have seen their ad, helping them understand how well their ads are reaching their potential customers,” … "Over time, this new metric can also help advertisers draw a connection between reaching a larger percentage of people nearby and accomplishing the business outcomes they care about."

This will be useful for small businesses with shops or locations, but adds no value for online business who may want more measurable tools. In terms of people using, I can only imagine that nearly everyone will turn this feature off. I just don’t really see the appeal, I suppose unless you’re sat in by yourself on a Friday night with nothing to do.