Snapchat releases new travel tracker feature ‘Footprints’ to its iOS users
Snapchat is the most innovative messaging app, and it recently introduced a feature on iOS known as ‘Footsteps,’ which can be considered nothing but a journey tracker feature for making trips memorable and easier to track. This add-on marks Snapchat’s persistent efforts to expand beyond pure messaging, providing more utility for users on the go. Let’s look at what makes this new feature exciting for all travelers and social media enthusiasts.
What is ‘Footsteps’?
‘Footprints’ is an attempt to outline a path trace for a user journey and show them where they have been on the course of their travels. Whether it is trekking through a bustling city or exploring remote locations, this serves to track the journey seamlessly and organically.
The name ‘Footsteps’ aptly conveys the idea of retracing your physical steps through a digital lens. Although Snapchat already provides the location feature known as Snap Map with which one can locate friends and share where they are, Footsteps extends that experience more to the personal adventures of the individual.
How ‘Footsteps’ Works
Footprints utilize the location data of your smartphone for mapping out the journey. It may thus be able to recognize significant landmarks and attractions; therefore, users can see a whole trip summarized visually. You can also turn on notifications and revisit the route of the adventures.
Privacy Control:
In footsteps, there is great room for customization in the privacy setting hence enabling the user to monitor their movement but do it privatively unless they would want to share it publicly. This is important to those who would require tracking with a high degree of anonymity yet still have a very interesting view of the tracking experience.
Journey Sharing:
Users can share their journey with friends or on their stories, focusing on specific locations visited. It’s adding a whole new element to travel and experience the fun of traveling, but do it virtually by making someone else part of your journey.
What makes this different from SnapMap
Essentially, Snap Map makes visible what your friends are up to and what is happening in your neighborhood, while Footsteps provides a kind of retrospective view of yours. It’s a feature more suited for personal tracking and for recording memories rather than searching for friends and related activities. This user-journey focus brings an entirely new dimension to documenting travels within the app.
By using Footprints, you are not sharing a photo or video snippet but an entire route that translates your travels into the language of a story that can be shared and relived with friends and family.
Benefits for Travelers
Footsteps Detail Journey Mapping:
It lets travelers who love traveling trace their routes back, therefore, giving one a complete overview of where they have been. This will be very helpful for frequent travelers who may want to recall specific paths they have taken.
Discover hidden treasures:
Using the feature of tracing your path, users may find some spots that they had not viewed during their tour and can go there afterward. The footprints may also indicate some of the popular stoppages during the route through which you may discover hidden treasures during your future tours.
Memories in Motion:
Footsteps Convert a trip into a more lively memory you can visit and revisit when you like. While traveling has evolved from being centered around the destination to being more about experiences and storytelling, Snapchat has found a way to upscale this narrative by allowing its users to share not only moments but also journeys.
What This Means for iOS Users
This aside, the company is exclusive only to iOS users and will be an exciting new tool for those within the Apple ecosystem. Focus on Snapchat’s ability to roll out first on iOS shows that it is more about integration features that take advantage of the robust capabilities iOS provides, especially with location services and user privacy.
Also, the user interface is anticipated to be one of the best because of the integration between Snapchat and the iOS interface itself. The roll-out is still unknown for Android users but promises that the app platform will continue improving its user experience across mobile devices with its release for iOS users.

Conclusion
A Snapchat “Footsteps” feature just arrived, bringing a new approach to personal travel tracking: using this to capture not only moments but entire journeys. Snapchat in its efforts to make travel more engaging and personal is, of course, now allowing users to share their adventures or just keep a very detailed log of travels.
This is a fresh opportunity for travel documentation and storytelling, exciting indeed for the iOS user. As Snapchat grows into something beyond this basic disappearing message hub, meaningful and shareable experiences surely will be had within this space, too. Just wait for more to unfold as Snapchat pushes forward with social sharing innovations like Footsteps.