Marco Polo app for iOS and Android-based smartphones lets users share their location with select people and add an image or a message to the pin.
Location sharing has become very popular with users sending out pinned locations to friends via in-built Maps or apps like Foursquare or Facebook. This trend has put behind the traditional text-to-guide method. Several social networking and instant messaging apps let users share content with friends but these apps limit their services when it comes to private sharing. By sharing location on social media, users are often left with no option but to give out their whereabouts to everyone in the friends list.
However, a new smartphone app is going to change that. The Marco Polo app for iOS and Android lets users share location with select friends only.
There are many other location-sharing apps, but Marco Polo works in a unique fashion. The app's co-founder Aneel Ranadive wrote in an email to TechCrunch explaining that the app "is more low key and less formal than texting, and less invasive than, say, turning on Apple's Find My Friends or broadcasting to your entire network on Foursquare or Facebook."
The app works just like the popular children's game Marco Polo. While sharing location on services like Facebook and Foursquare, users cannot choose who they share their location with. The app gives users the power to share location with a private network each time. Users get notified when a location is being shared using Marco Polo, provided those friends are chosen by the sharer. A link of the location is also shared through which friends can track the users' location. Users can attach a picture and add a message to their pinned location for further customization.
"Marco polo is the easiest way to send your location privately to friends. 'marco' a few friends to let them know what you're up to. you can attach a picture, message, or both! in one click, they can 'polo' back their own location with a picture and message," the company said.
Marco Polo for iOS has been available for its users for some time but the app has just made its entry to the Android platform (currently in a beta testing phase).
