Meta has tipped its hand when it comes to social mapping. It’s currently testing a feature in Instagram to array social signals on a map, sort of like Snap Map. This essentially supplements the scrolling feed where those signals normally live. And it could be a step towards more local ad dollars for Meta.
Stepping back, 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 vertical integration and Snap’s social signals.
Now Meta is making a claim for market share. But full disclosure, this isn’t its first move. Instagram previously offered a map that displays 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 baseline, the latest development adds a full-blown mapping section to Instagram, displaying location-based friend updates. This puts it in direct competition with Snap Map, as noted, Similarly, this follows a rich tradition of social app features (e.g., Instagram Stories) that are cloned from competitors.
UX Particulars
Going deeper into Meta’s plans and UX particulars, the new map offers users the opt-in ability to share their location and see their friends’ real-time location on a map. It’s currently being tested with a limited set of Instagram users – with no guarantee it will be released widely – but the experiment is still telling.
For now, the map includes options for sharing with synchronous followers, frequent contacts, or anyone chosen manually. This makes it more privacy-oriented and social-graph-structured than Snap Map – which makes sense as Instagram is generally set up as more of a social graph than Snapchat.
As for features and social interaction, it appears that users can leave notes for one another (which are essentially direct messages pinned to a map location). This feature could spark moments of serendipity when you get location-based alerts upon entering a new city or neighborhood, again just like Snap map.
That last part brings us back to the monetization angle teased above. It’s unclear if businesses can participate in the new map. If it follows Instagram’s broader model, the possibilities are organic (sharing location-based notes and updates with followers), or paid (amplified promotional messaging).
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Relevance Trigger
Alogether Instagram’s map takes the social graph and wraps a mapping structure and taxonomy around it. Another way to think about it is that Instagram has always been a discovery engine based on behavioral and contextual relevance. Now an additional relevance trigger joins the mix: location.
Moreover, Instagram – though late to the game – may have an inherent advantage over tools Like Google Maps and Apple Maps: social signals. These are the primary drivers for its relevance engine. Like Snap Map, it’s all about discovering things around you in the context of what friends are doing nearby.
Though incumbents in the mapping world like Google and Apple have established market shares and technological head starts, one thing they lack is social graphs for additional mapping dimension. Snap and Instagram clearly recognize this competitive edge and are leaning into it in their mapping strategies.
But they should also tread carefully. Like we learned in Apple Maps’ infamous mapgate mishap, mapping bells & whistles mean nothing if the basics don’t work. Mapping apps have to find what you’re looking for, which requires things like accurate business listings. We’ll see if Meta can pull off these basics.
Header Image Credit: Dima Solomin on Unsplash
