Near in FadeTalk handles location as fixed areas, not coordinates. Your phone turns its position into one area about 2.2 km tall and at least 3 km² in size, sends only that area to the server, and the server sets the distance band from how many areas apart two people are. The name of that band is the only location information other people see, and your location is read only at the moment you tap Check nearby.
1. When your location is read
Turning Near on does not make the app read your location. Opening the Places tab does not either. Your location is read once each time you tap Check nearby or Check again. There is no background tracking, no repeated reading and no geofence. On Android the app asks only for approximate location.
2. Turned into an area on your phone
On your phone, the position becomes the number of an area in a grid that divides the whole world by one rule. The server receives that number, never coordinates. The grid does not move, so walking around inside one area sends the same value.
3. Distance bands
| Shown as | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Same area | Inside the same area |
| Adjacent area | The area right next to yours |
| This region | Two or three areas away |
| Not shown | Further than that |
A band is an approximation at the size of an area. Two people in the same area might be a few hundred metres apart or at opposite edges of it, which is why FadeTalk never shows a number of metres. A single check shows at most 30 people.
4. Who can see you
A card for someone who is not your friend shows a distance band, a nickname and a generated avatar; the ID code and profile photo appear only between mutual friends. Someone set to Friends appears only in a mutual friend's list; someone set to Everyone nearby also appears for other people using Near around them. Anyone who is not your friend can only send a chat request, and no message can be sent before it is accepted. In Korea, two people who do not know each other are shown to each other only if both have verified a phone. People you block are never shown, and a report keeps the two of you out of each other's list for 30 days.
5. When you drop off and when it is deleted
Leaving the Near screen or sending the app to the background keeps you out of checks made after that; staying on the screen, you drop off 30 minutes after your last check. Results already on someone's screen are not recalled. Pause takes effect with one tap, and withdrawing consent deletes your location information with it. There is no history table of where you have been.
6. The record you can check
Under Location services in Settings, the disclosure log shows when your distance band was given to whom and for what purpose. The location itself is not in it either. There are also caps on how many different areas one person can check in a day and on how often two people who do not know each other can see each other, so moving around to look for a specific person does not work well.
Limits worth knowing
A band is approximate, so it will not tell you whether someone is in the same building. Because it uses approximate location, the same band can feel closer in a dense city than in the suburbs. What someone has already seen on their screen cannot be taken back, so if you are new to Near, starting with Visible to Friends is a sensible default. The full details are in the location information policy.