The Snap Map function, which shows where Snaps were shot, is beneficial for folks who want to know where the hottest locations to visit in a certain area — but not so much for people fleeing a war. Snap has temporarily disabled the “heatmap” feature for public posts in Ukraine as a safety precaution.
As a safety precaution we have temporarily disabled the Snap Map’s "heatmap" of public Snaps in Ukraine. We will continue to offer curated Stories comprised of Snaps submitted in Ukraine.
— Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport) March 5, 2022
Typically, the Snap Map uses a glowing red circle to represent regions where a lot of Snaps have been captured, and a blue circle to highlight places where some posts have been made. You’ll notice that there are no longer any signs over Ukraine if you look at the feature in the app or on the site.
Other tech companies had removed tools that may track Ukrainians leaving the nation, which is currently under Russian bombardment. To ensure the safety of locals, Google blocked live traffic data in Ukraine, including the live traffic layer for Maps.
It also disabled user-submitted Maps placements after reports that the Russian military was using them to coordinate airstrikes. Apple said it had deactivated live traffic data in Ukraine to prevent the app from being used to target Ukraine citizens when it announced it was halting all product sales in Russia.
