Snapchat now asks you to turn on location services to use basic filters

Snapchat has finally come up with a feature we dearly hope Facebook will not be cloning.

The company is now asking users to enable location services when using its basic filters. The change, which was initially spotted by a heap of irked Redditors, purportedly came with the latest iteration of the app (version 2017.05.25).

Snapchat users that have disabled location will see the following message appear when attempting to use filters:

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Snapchat previously asked users to turn on location services only in cases of using geofilters and the speedometer. Weirdly enough, users are reporting that the augmented reality facial recognition filters are still fully functional without the need to enable location services.

While the company is yet to explain the change, the latest release notes mention the ability to “create a Story for friends in a specific location” which could be why the app asks for location.

The good thing is that there might be a way to circumvent Snapchat’s permission request without granting it access to your location.

Some Redditors have noticed that denying the app location permission while still keeping location services on ultimately bypasses the request. So practically, all you need to do to use filters without granting Snapchat access to your location is to trick the app into thinking you already have done so.

Unfortunately though, chances are this little loophole will soon be patched – which you’ll likely have to buckle down and eventually grant Snap access to your location if you want to continue using its filters. Bummer.