Instagram this week revealed its plans to develop a social mapping function. Similar on some levels to Snap Map, the idea is to array social signals on a map. For Instagram, that supplements the scrolling feed where those signals normally live. And it could be a conduit to monetization through location marketing.
For all these reasons, it seems that everyone wants a piece of the local mapping action. After years of dominance from Google Maps, we’re seeing challengers in Apple Maps and Snap Map. These each have their own set of advantages including Apple’s iOS on-deck positioning and Snap’s social mapping layers.
Now Instagram is throwing its hat in the ring. But to be fair, this isn’t its first mapping move. It previously had a map that arrayed Instagram posts based on their geo-tagged metadata. Beyond the location of origin, Instagram also maps the contents of posts, such as tagged businesses and points of interest.
With that foundation, this week’s revelation adds a full-blown mapping section to Instagram, displaying location-based friend updates. This puts it in direct competition with Snap Map, as noted, and follows a rich tradition of social app features (e.g., Instagram Stories) that are cloned from competitors.
Plans & Particulars
Going deeper on Instagram’s plans and UX particulars, the new “Friend Map” will offer users the opt-in ability to share their location and see their friends’ real-time location on a map. Based on some evidence gathered by feature sleuth Alessandro Paluzzi, this will let users choose who can see their location.
This includes options for sharing with synchronous followers (you both follow each other), close friends (those you interact with most), or individuals you choose specifically. The location-sharing feature will also evidently include a “ghost mode” (more Snap-like fare) to stop sharing for a specific timeframe.
As for features and social interaction, users can leave ‘notes’ for one another which are essentially direct messages pinned to a map location. This is presumably meant to spark moments of serendipity for location-based alerts from a friend, once you step into a specific neighborhood or geofence.
That last part is where some of the monetization potential materializes. Businesses on Instagram can likely participate, just like they do on the core app functions. That can be organic, setting themselves up to share information with followers, or (potentially) promoted in terms of targeting broader audiences.
Post by @alex193aView on Threads
Friendly Competition
All in all, the Friend Map takes Instagram’s social graph and wraps a mapping interface around it. Put another way, Instagram has always been a discovery engine that’s based on behavioral and contextual relevance. Now an additional relevance trigger joins the mix: location. This is the Snap Map playbook.
Moreover, what Instagram has built appears to be fundamentally different from tools Like Google Maps and Apple Maps. First, social signals are the primary driver for its relevance engine. Like Snap Map, it’s all about discovering things around you in the context of what friends are doing or tagging.
This provides a bit of an edge over Google and Apple. Though these incumbents have larger market shares and algorithmic competency, one thing they lack is social graphs for additional mapping dimension. Snap and Instagram recognize this edge and are building mapping strategies around it.
But like we learned in Apple Maps’ early mapgate mishap, mapping bells & whistles mean nothing if the map itself isn’t functional. The primary success factor for online mapping is to find what you’re looking for, which requires things like accurate business listings. We’ll see if Instagram can pull off the basics.
