What you need to know about Snap Map, Snapchat's latest feature that tracks your location 

For better or for worse, Snapchat's newest feature, Snap Map, allows users to see the exact location of their friends. Each user you're connected to is represented on a map by BitMoji avatars, a cartoonish way to personify real people.

The Verge is calling Snap Map Snapchat's "biggest privacy threat," because you can know exactly where people are with this "frightening" new update.

It's not all bad. "I like the Snap Map because you can always see what your friends are up to and what is going on," says Courtney Perkins, from Dallas.

Turn it off or keep it on?

Snap Map is available on all iOS and Android devices and can be accessed by pinching the camera home screen. It's an opt-in feature, and users have the choice to share their location with all friends, selected friends or nobody (if you go on Ghost Mode). Privacy settings can be set the first time you open the virtual map or can be found by tapping the settings button in the upper right-hand corner.

With features like heat colors to indicate where lots of snaps are coming in and possibly the location of a big event, the goal of the virtual map is to push users to make more real-life interactions, says Tech Crunch. Red areas signify areas where multiple Snap stories have been submitted while bluer areas mean lighter activity. If you add stories to "Our Story," your video could also make it onto the map and be visible to nonfriends for about a day.

In Dallas, Snap stories usually appear at popular locations such as the Dallas World Aquarium and Six Flags Over Texas.

How Snap Map shows what you're doing, like sleeping or taking a vacation

Based on location, time of day and other factors, BitMoji avatars can also change to reflect specifically what users are doing — such as sitting in a car or carrying luggage if they are at the airport. Some are pretty cute: The avatar appears inside a little plane if a friend is flying.

But that avatar in a little bed? Yeah, that's somebody sleeping, with the signified location as a house or apartment in a clearly specified area.

If you've got a bad case of FOMO, this news isn't good, either: When multiple users are together, their avatars get clumped together into a little circle. Maybe Snapchat has planned the demise of friendships?

What police recommend

Love it or hate it, Snapchat's Snap Map makes social media even more social. It might make it unsafe, too. "Aside from tipping off potential bad guys that you aren't at home, the tracking system could also put children in danger of stalkers or kidnappers," Dallas Morning News opinion writer Danya Issawi writes.

Officer David Tilley from the Plano Police Department warned social media users in Plano to turn off their location services.

Plano resident Amy Lu says she turned it on for just one friend. "I was uncomfortable letting 300 Snap friends now where I was at all times; that's too much information revealed to too many people I don't know very well," she says.

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