Facebook has launched a new feature which uses the GPS signal in mobile phones to help people find friends – and potential new friends – nearby.
The ‘Friendshake’ feature, designed primarily for use on phones, will allow the user to make friends with people who are close by – perhaps in the same office, gym, or bar.
According to Dailymail, the time-saving feature means that, if you meet a group of new people, you can all use this for one-touch friendship, rather than manually finding out each person’s name and separately adding them.
Some users may find this a boon to easily connect with new acquaintances, while others may see this as an invasion of privacy and way for unwanted people to get your attention.
However, the feature is currently one you have to manually turn on, by visiting http://www.fb.com/ffn – the last letters are an acronym for Find Friends Nearby.
When you enter the URL into your mobile browser, Facebook will provide a list of others who have visited the same page recently in the same area. A quick click will then add you as friends.
As Facebook acquired start-up Glancee last month, a mobile app which helps you find friends with similar interests nearby, it seems this is very much in the direction the social network is trying to go.
Facebook engineer Ryan Patterson said: ‘I built Find Friends Nearby with another engineer for a hackathon project. While it was originally called ‘Friendshake,’ we settled on ‘Find Friends Nearby’ for launch (the URL was a little bit of a homage to the previous iteration).
‘For me, the ideal use case for this product is the one where when you’re out with a group of people whom you’ve recently met and want to stay in contact with Facebook search might be effective, or sharing your vanity addresses or business cards, but this tool provides a really easy way to exchange contact information with multiple people with minimal friction.’
Facebook is nearly 900million users, which means there is plenty of people to get friendly with – whether this feature will turn out to be a boon or a nuisance will be tested with time.
The feature can be turned on be used by visiting http://www.fb.com/ffn and is also available on the iPhone and Android apps.