• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 27, 2017

In real-time, Facebook Messenger is now inviting users to share their physical locations with personal contacts.   

In tests, people told Facebook that the “Live Location” feature makes it easier to meet up with friends and family and synchronize schedules, according to Selma Wang, a product manager at Facebook.

With the new feature, people can share their whereabouts for an hour with one contact or with a larger group. 

As for Facebook Messenger’s arrival into the location-tracking space, users can now expect to see a map of their current location, and the option to tap a blue bar to share their Live Location.

Messenger users will also be able to see an estimate of how long it would take to get to others’ locations by car. This expected time of arrivals is seen by the person with whom the location is shared.

Messenger has seen strong adoption since Facebook siloed the service as a separate app. Monetization has been another story, however.  

“Although Messenger is widely used … consumers have been slow to warm up to the idea of interacting with chat bots and paid advertising in messaging applications,” eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson cautioned earlier this year.

Coincidence or not, Google announced plans to add a real-time location-tracking feature to its Maps service just last week. Google Maps users should soon be able to share their current location, travel route and estimated arrival time with contacts.

Previously, people could share their whereabouts with Google’s old Latitude service, as well as its fated Google+ social network.

This year, 39.6% of U.S. Web users will send or receive a message via Facebook Messenger, by eMarketer’s estimate.