Instagram Is Removing Photo Maps as They're 'Not Widely Used'

Maintaining an app that is popular worldwide is not an easy task. It not only involves adding new useful features from time-to-time, but it also means that you need to remove the unnecessary ones. After the addition of much-wanted zoom feature to the its iOS app last week, Instagram has now decided to do away with the less-used Photo Map feature from the photo-sharing platform.

The Photo Map feature essentially allowed you to see the location of the pictures taken by other people by visiting their respective profiles, all laid out over a world map.

Instagram reportedly started removing the feature for some users last week. Users are not able to see the Photo Map of other users but can apparently see their own Photo Map as of now. However, this is likely to change very soon.

"Photo Map was not widely used, so we've decided to remove the feature and focus on other priorities," the company said in a statement to Mashable.

An Instagram spokesperson further confirmed to Mashable that the move is not going to affect not affect the application's API, which currently allows companies or developers to pull tagged location information from public posts, even if the post isn't marked with a location tag. It is important to note that geotags for locations are not disappearing from the app - you will still be able to add a location while posting, click on location tag in an individual post, and see other photos from that particular location.

Instagram seems to be focused on competing with the likes of Snapchat, one of the apps that has gained momentum lately and has threatened the former's position. Instagram has added some features lately that are clearly inspired from Snapchat, and seems to be now removing ones that make its app seem complicated.