What Is Ghost Mode? How To Turn Off Snap Map So You Can Live In Peace
It's no secret that I'm a fan of the many wonderful and teen ways you can fully utilize Snapchat. From snap sexting, to the ugly AF selfies I send my bestie on my morning commute, it's my sincere belief that Insta stories will never fully kill Snapchat.
Besides, who in their right mind would upload a nude to Instagram? Not me, because I have some tact, obviously.
Snapchat has this new feature called Snap Map, where you can literally see where all of your friends are and what they're doing. And when I say you can see where they are, I'm talking yes, exact location -- cross streets and all.
Once you update your app to the latest version of Snapchat, you will be prompted to set up location sharing when you go into the Snap Map features. When you first start using it, you can decide if you want friends to see your location, just a few friends to see you, or no one at all. In true snap ghost fashion, if you want to hide from people knowing your whereabouts, you can select "ghost mode" to opt out of the location tagging.
If you click on the illuminated colors around the map, you can actually click into people's stories as they're doing cool things around you.
For reference, here's a screenshot of fellow Elite Daily editor Katie Corvino and I hanging out on the same street. She's the lively and beautiful cupcake Bitmoji, and I'm the dark and grim blue shadow (it's comforting).
Immediately, I can think of about 17,346,346 reasons why this is probably a bad idea. But the dark side of me also realizes how much I wish I had this when I was dating someone who lived outside of the city. Like, I could have done some serious stalking and ended up in a snap story sinkhole of watching his friends' stories that probably would have ended up in me being mad at him.
Teens these days really do have it all.
But also, like, what about the times when I tell all my friends I'm definitely not going out and they stalk me on Snap Map only to realize that I'm actually out with another group of friends I didn't want to tell them about?
Also! What about Kylie Jenner?! She already worries about stalkers enough as it is, and I'm sure she's too busy to realize she needs to turn the map feature off in good ol' Calabasas.
OK, so now that I've psyched myself out enough that I'm definitely never using Snap Map. So once I've opted in, how do I go about turning it off?
Well, my friends, let me introduce you to a little thing known as "ghost mode."
How To Turn Off Your Location Using Ghost Mode
Once you're in camera mode in Snapchat, use two fingers to squeeze the camera screen toward the center. Here is where your Snap Map is located.
There's me again: ghostly blue figure with three vibrant gal pals surrounding me.
If you look at the top right corner of the map, you'll see the settings button. Click that to reveal your settings options.
Ghost Mode
As you can see, I have my settings checked so that all of my friends can see my location. Selecting ghost mode ensures that no one — not even your friends — will be able to keep tabs on your whereabouts or be able to see what you're up to.
The only Snapchats they will be able to view are the ones you post publicly to your story.
Make sure ghost mode is illuminated in green, and you're good to go!
Whew. Now you can breathe a breath of relief because you are now free to live your life totally and completely the way nature intended: in solitary, probably with AC blasting, watching an entire season of Orange Is The New Black in one sitting.
Definitely make sure you go invisible if you don't want friends checking up on you. But maybe limit the amount of people you tell about this, since, well, you still obviously want to keep tabs on them.
