Instagram isn’t just piling on new features — it’s taking them away, too. The social image service says that it’s removing the Photo Map feature, which lets you see where a person’s snapshots come from. The removals started last week, Instagram adds. It’s currently focused on removing maps on profiles of other people, but you’ll eventually lose access to your own photo map as well. Location info will stick around (such as pages showing all the photos taken at a given place), however, so you won’t lose track of where you took that stunning flower shot.
The company doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining the move: it tells us that Photo Map “was not widely used.” It’s shifting its attention to other areas, according to the statement (which you can read below). Frankly, the decision isn’t shocking. When’s the last time you browsed your friends’ photo locations? And when Instagram is currently obsessed with video and beating Snapchat, cartography isn’t exactly high on the priority list.
“Photo Map was not widely used, so we’ve decided to remove the feature and focus on other priorities. You will still be able to see location tags on individual posts.”
