3 Reasons Why Nearby Friends in FB Feature was taken down

3 Reasons Why Nearby Friends in FB Feature was taken down

On 17th of April 2014 Facebook announced a new feature "Nearby Friends". Nearby Friends feature lets you connect with your fiends who are nearby, so you guys can meet up. Suppose you want to watch a movie and you don't have your usual movie friends nearby. You can ask one of your social media friend via FB nearby fieature, if he/she is free to watch a movie together. Nearby feature was not only about watching movies, it was also good for people who are moving into a new city and need to socialize. It was about making memories in the real world by meeting a social media friend physically.

It was such a good feature, so why it was taken down by Facebook after 8 years? The 3 Reasons Why Nearby Friends in FB Feature was taken down are User Privacy Invasion, Other Location based Social Media Apps Launced and Not a specific niche to Focus.

1. User Privacy Invasion

Not Every Facebook friend exists. Usually Kidnappers and professional criminals make fake profiles to perform high calibre of crimes. Suppose I got a request from random person and I accepts it, we both have nearby feature on. If that random person is criminal, he will have my exact location and can kidnap me or do anything he wants. Never accept Strangers Friend Request.
Because of this feature there was always a user privacy invasion risk. With audience being more mature this feature was used less often. Facebook had no other choice than shuting it down.

*2. Other Location Based Social Media Apps
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Snapchat was introduced in 2011. It was more trustworthy than Facebook in a sense that you can add only those people who do have your contact Number. So on Snapchant people were less reluctant sharing their location.
Snapchat dominated the market of location Sharing. With its Snap Map function, Snapchat has garnered a lot of popularity by enabling users to view Snaps posted to the Map from all over the world and share their whereabouts with friends. The 2017 acquisition of Zenly by Snapchat improved its social mapping features even further.

*3. Nearby Friends in FB is not Facebook's Niche
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Facebook started as a social networking platform initially designed for college students. It had basic functionality of timeline update and Sending and Recieving Friend Request. Then it turned into Messeging app too. Then into a blog platform, a video sharing platform,etc. It did not focus on any one niche. By introducing nearby feature, it also step its feet in location based app too. Being too generice facebook is losing its popularity. As a photo Sharing social media app instagram is gaining popularity, as a location based app Snapchat has taken the market, as a messaging app Whatsapp is dominant. The app which focus on any specific niche always work. So Facebook must rethink its strategy to focus on a specifi niche to gain its popularity back.

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