Foursnap? Snapchat tries “Status” location checkins

Today’s teens missed the Foursquare era so Snapchat is giving them another shot with a new feature to aid in-person meetups. Snapchat is now testing Status, an option to share to the Snap Map a Bitmoji depicting what you’re up to at a certain place. You could show your little avatar playing video games, watching TV, asking friends to hit you up, and more. And Snapchat will compile these into a private diary of what you’ve been doing called Passport

This fixes the biggest problem with Snap Map and many other location checkin apps. Just because someone is down the street doesn’t mean they want you to drop in on them. They could working, in a meeting, or on a date. Snapchat Status lets people convey their activity and intention so you can tell the difference between “I’m nearby but stuck with my parents” and “I’m nearby and want to hang out!” As Snapchat refocuses on messaging after Instagram stole its Stories thunder, Status could ensure there’s more to see that makes Snap Map worth opening.

Snapchat Status and Passport were first spotted by reverse engineering expert and frequent TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong. “Share the Moment with Status” the introduction to the feature explains. “You can now share where you are or what you’re up to. Your Status will only be visible to friends you share your location with.” To se your status, you choose from reams of poses for your Bitmoji ranging from them reading a book to holding a sign saying “text me?”

Meanwhile, “Passport is Just For You: Passport helps you keep track of the Places you’ve been. Places you set your Status at will be added to your Passport along with who you were there with. Only you ca see your Passport, and you can delete a Place from your history at any time.” Your Status only lasts until you leave a place, but it’s tallied along with the number of countries and cities you’ve check into on your Passport.