Like ChatOn and BBM before it, Kik Messenger has partnered with popular location-tracking service Glympse to give its users real-time location sharing. The partnership will allow Kik’s 120 million users to share their location, or request a friend to share their location using Glympse directly from a Kik conversation.
The Glympse service also includes a map viewable inside the Kik Messenger app that can update the shared location.
Kik allows users to limit how long a friend will be able to view live locations
“Location and messaging are tailor made for each other. Texting has become a primary form of communication for many, and many times the conversation includes the question, ‘where are you?’” said Darren Austin, vice president of product, Glympse. “By incorporating location technology within the Kik application, users now have an engaging, dynamic way to interact. With this latest integration, we are continuing to push forward with a new wave of messaging that does more than just static text.”
In addition to allowing users to share locations with one another, Kik also allows users to limit how long a friend will be able to view live location data, which should help to ease some concerns for privacy advocates and parents.
The Glympse integration is available on iOS and Android powered devices. Since Kik doesn’t yet support Windows Phone with its Cards feature, WP users will have to wait this one out until a future update is released that includes this support.
Download the latest version of Kik here.
Update: Added quote