Near in FadeTalk shows who is close by as a distance band, never on a map. Your phone reads its location once, when you tap Check nearby, turns it into an area roughly 2 km across, and sends only that. Other people see one of three bands: Same area, Adjacent area or This region. Nothing is shared continuously, and you choose who can see you: your friends, or everyone nearby.
How this differs from live location sharing
Location-sharing apps usually keep a friend's exact position on a map. That helps when you are looking for each other, but it is far more than you need to know whether a friend made it to the same concert or the same part of town. Near is built the other way round: it checks only when you ask, and the answer is a single band.
| Live location on a map | FadeTalk Near | |
|---|---|---|
| What others see | Your position on a map | A distance band |
| When location is read | Updated while sharing is on | Once, when you tap Check nearby |
| How long you appear in new checks | Until you stop sharing | Until you leave the Near screen, 30 minutes after your last check at most (results already shown are not recalled) |
| Who sees you | Whoever you share with | Friends, or everyone nearby — your choice |
Turning Near on
- In the FadeTalk app, open the Places tab and tap Turn on under Near.
- Agree to the location service terms, and set Visible to either Friends or Everyone nearby.
- Tap Check nearby. The first time, your phone asks for location permission.
- People nearby appear with a distance band. Tap a friend to open a chat; for anyone else, send a chat request.
Near is for people aged 14 or over with a verified email address that can receive mail: a verified email sign-up, a Google account, or an Apple account that shares its email. Apple accounts that chose Hide My Email cannot use Near for now. It runs on iOS and Android; desktop browsers are not supported.
Visible to: who can see you
The Visible to setting decides whose list you appear in. With Friends, you show up only when a mutual friend checks nearby. With Everyone nearby, you also show up for other people using Near around you, and anyone who is not your friend can send a chat request. No messages can be sent until you accept. In Korea, because this connects you with people you do not know, you verify a phone once before choosing Everyone nearby.
When you drop off the list
Leave the Near screen or send the app to the background and you no longer appear for people who check nearby after that. If you stay on the screen, you drop off 30 minutes after your last check. Results already on someone's screen stay there. Tap Pause to stay out of sight for a while: while paused, you are not shown to anyone and no one is shown to you. Decline or block requests you do not want; a report also keeps the two of you out of each other's Near list for 30 days.
What pairs well with it
For a crowd gathered in one place, a place room fits better than Near. When you check nearby, the conference, performance and pop-up rooms whose hosts chose to show them nearby appear as well; Korean accounts see them after verifying a phone. If you want to keep talking to someone you met through Near, add each other as friends. The difference between a chat request and a friend request is in chat requests and friend requests, and how your location is handled is in how Near works.