Find My Apps – a Social Network?

What started out as a function to help find lost phones, has now developed into a way to keep tabs on family and friends. Is the ‘find my’ app the ultimate expression of social media and social discovery?

To generalise for a moment, for many people of my generation (millennials and above), the idea of turning on location services, so friends and family can see where you are at all times is uncomfortable. We were raised that the internet is a dangerous place, where you share as little private information as possible. We used avatars and nicknames. We wouldn’t share our real name, let alone our location. 

There are thousands of users who fly in the face of this, likely, outdated mindset. Find My Phone, was an iPhone app originally meant to help you find a lost device, which turned into Find My Friends, and now exists as Find My. On it, you can share the location of your devices with friends, and friends can see yours. And it’s far from the only app across mobile devices that offer this kind of service. At first these kinds of apps were marketed as a security feature. It helps parents know their child made it somewhere safe, or let friends keep an eye on friends out late on dates.

But a growing trend is showing that these kinds of apps are becoming for many people, the most intimate of social networks. Not all thoughts of security are thrown out the window, and most users are of course selective about what friends and family they share their locations with. But by doing so, they create a picture everyday of what their friends are up to. They can quickly arrange a meet-up if they happen to be nearby. They can see their friend is at the cinema, and wouldn’t be able to take a call right now. Or they can see, just like themselves, their friend is taking the time to use Sundays for what they are truly for: a nice long lie-in. 

According to a feature in the New York Times, it brings comfort to people, to see their friends living out their lives. It’s social discovery to the absolute max – letting you, in real-time, discover your friends’ true social habits. 

It gives an ageing fella like me the ick – I don’t need anyone to know how infrequently I leave my postcode thanks (oh look – he’s down at the corner shop again!) – but for generations who have grown up with the internet at their fingertips – it’s a natural, comforting and fun form of socially interacting. The social discovery apps that help people find new friends, naturally use location services to match you with people nearby. It would be interesting to see if any can take that aspect further in a way that does not create unsafe scenarios. Or, does the intimate nature of location sharing mean it will always be a social app reserved for established friends, not for new ones.