If you believed that late nights and sleep disruptions were solely a baby thing, think again! It’s true that sleep gets a bit easier as kids grow, but then comes the teenage phase where parents often find themselves pacing the floor, worried sick until their teenager safely arrives home.
Snapchat just rolled out an interesting feature called HomeSafe. This tool sends automatic alerts to trusted friends and family members when your teen arrives home after an outing. For any parent who’s been rudely awoken in the middle of the night by the panic of ‘Did they get home okay?’, this feature is a real game-changer!
Here’s how it works: teens can set their home location on Snap Map. Before they head back from various adventures—be it a late shift at work, a concert, or just hanging out with friends—they can open a special chat, hit the Map icon, and tap the ‘Home Safe’ button. This sends a one-time private alert that they’ve made it home, eliminating the last-minute scramble to remember that follow-up text. Just imagine—no more unnecessary worrying!
According to a statement from Snapchat, “Home Safe alerts are designed with user safety and privacy in consideration. You can only send these alerts to friends whose locations you’ve chosen to share, and the alert is a one-time notification that automatically disables after it’s sent. Just a heads-up: Snap Map relies on user preference, so it’s several notches below invasive tracking purely by default.”
With over 400 million users taking advantage of Snap Map every year, it has become a handy tool for connecting with loved ones and discovering what’s around. They even integrated Snap Map with their Family Center in 2024, letting parents request live location sharing from their teens while giving them the option to share their whereabouts as well.
Interestingly, many teens from our SheKnows Teen Council disclosed that there could easily be around 100 sets of eyes on their location during any given moment and then some. A 16-year-old named Griffin mentioned, “I have about 250 people who could see where I am on Snap Map at any moment.”
Yet, FOMO is real among teens. As another member, Calder, shared his feelings of alienation, “I do feel a bit of FOMO when my pals are hanging out without me—especially when it’s a group discussion that either I wasn’t invited to or could attend but didn’t.”
Nevertheless, since teens are likely to utilize Snap Map anyway, why not allow it to work to our advantage as parents? It can help keep us in the loop regarding their movements, giving us peace of mind about their nightly exploits—be it an arrival home, at a pal’s residence, or even at another guardian’s house.
Before heading off, peek into what different celebrity parents are sharing about coaching their teens in driving skills.
