Snapchat wants to get even closer to its users, now requesting users to enable location services before accessing basic filters.
When location services are disabled, a message appears prompting the user to identify their location to access filters with “different colours, the weather, your location and more”. The change was first noted across Reddit a few days ago.
The location services prompt for basic filters reportedly came with the latest version of the Snapchat app (Release version 2017-05-25).
Before the most recent prompt came out, Snapchat only requested location services for geo filters and the speedometer.
This new prompt may be part of Snapchat’s effort to promote ad filters customised to the user’s location, such as with its geo filters.
At this time, users can continue to use basic filters even after denying location services. However, this may only be a temporary loophole.