Viber cannot determine your location. How to enable or disable location detection in Viber

How geolocation works

Viber has two systems in its arsenal to determine the user’s location. So, depending on the conditions, the utility uses either GPS or Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is used when simple mobile geolocation tracking is not available. GPS is not used in cases where, for example, the utility user is indoors and has the ability to use Wi-Fi, or when he has purposefully turned off GPS on his device.

Geolocation accuracy with using Wi-Fi depends on the number of its points near the user. So, if there are not enough points, then it will not be easy to determine the location of a person.

The error in determining a user’s location using Wi-Fi ranges from 1.5 to 80 meters, but in the case of GPS – up to 50 meters.

How to enable geolocation

Geolocation can be sent with a simple message via Viber. So, to see the location of your interlocutor, ask him to do the following:

1. Go into your correspondence with him.

2.In the window where you want to print the text, select the button with the image of three dots.

3.In the drop-down menu you should set “Send location”. The sent location will look like this:

4.If you need to enable location display on a permanent basis, then select the gray arrow in the lower right corner and activate it. Now each message will contain information about the current location of the utility user.

After completing the above steps, the location of your interlocutor will be constantly available to you. In order to disable location in Viber, you should follow similar steps.

Geolocation tracking can sometimes save lives. For example, if you get lost in the forest, or your companion gets lost, you can track his location with an accuracy of a couple of tens of meters, which is very convenient.

Geolocation can always be removed by disabling it using the same method as the one indicated above to activate it.

How to prevent geolocation from being found out in Viber on iPhone

You can find out the geolocation of an iPhone user in a similar way. However distinctive feature Apple products There are a fairly large number of applications that can help the user send false data about their location.

For example, one such program is Location Spoofer, which can confuse geolocations. After you download and open the application, you will need to select one of two items, which, translated from English, have unambiguous names: “Always deceive” and “Never deceive.” If you choose the first option, the utility will always confuse your geolocation data and it will be almost impossible to track you using your phone. The second point was created so that you always have the opportunity to send only accurate geolocation data.

Applications for changing geolocation data can be useful primarily for those who need to install utilities that have territorial restrictions.

So, we looked at how Viber determines the geolocation of a subscriber and how to disable location determination. First of all, it is necessary that the person himself configures his phone in such a way that you are able to track his location.

Viber messenger is a fairly popular and convenient platform for communication (http://www.viber.com/ru/). However, in addition to free SMS and calls between users, this thing also allows you to determine the location of your contacts, which, frankly, is sometimes a “disservice”. Today I will talk about how to reliably disable sending your location to other people.

And so, at first glance, everything is clear - when writing a message, in the right corner of the text field there is an icon that enables or disables the transfer of your geolocation.

It would be logical to think that if you disable such transmission, then your contacts will not be able to track your location. However, in reality this is not the case.

Disabling the transfer of your location blocks the application's access to GPS data, but at the same time leaves open access to data of indirect determination of position on the ground (via cell towers). As a result, if you go to the contact properties, the following icon appears opposite some users:

By clicking on it, you see the contact's position on the map. Yes, with a large error, but still enough to understand in which area of ​​the city or in which city a person is located.

To disable this function, you need to go to the settings of the phone itself and go to the section where the access rights of applications to the geolocation service are registered (on each platform - iOS, Android, Windows - this section is located in its own place in the menu). And here it is necessary to deny Viber access to geolocation service data. After this, your interlocutors will not be able to track your location.

So I recommend disabling this option so that Vider cannot detect where you are. You can tell anyone who needs it anyway, but it is not at all necessary that the details of your movements be available to the entire list of contacts.

Location detection is a very useful feature that can help you and your interlocutors find each other or simply show your location. Many people worry that anyone who receives a message from you in a Viber chat will be able to determine your location.

Be careful!

You need to be very careful with this function, because it is very easy to activate this function unnoticed when sending a message. Always make sure that the poisoned message contains an arrow with coordinates, because you can accidentally reveal your location when this is completely undesirable. An incident happened to the author of this article when he said that he was with friends in a bar, and the message he sent contained the coordinates of Holland. Moreover, its coordinates pointed to the red light street :)

We hasten to reassure you: By default, the function to determine your location in Viber program disabled! In addition, for geolocation to work accurately, you need WiFi turned on. Otherwise, the accuracy of the sent coordinates will depend on the towers cellular communications with an error of up to 100 meters.

But still, it is useful to know where this function is turned on and off.

For iPhone

On Android everything is the same.

Contrary to the beliefs of some people who like to watch horror stories on TV, location-based services are nothing special. They simply create conditions for the correct operation of some applications: navigators, maps, weather forecasts, etc. Moreover, in the messenger this function does not work in background, but at your request. It’s still important for you to know how to disable location in Viber - welcome to reading the article.

Basic information about the service

If you want to tell your friend exact details about where you are, just click "Send location." The system quickly creates a map with your geolocation data and prepares it for sending. All you have to do is confirm the shipment. The interlocutor receives a small piece of the map where he can see the way to you (you are marked with a flag).
And now the most important thing: in Viber there is no such button that would disable the function "Send location." And this is logical. As stated above, the service does not work in the background, i.e. it is not constantly turned on. Only one-time requests are made at your command. The rest of the time, geolocation in the messenger is inactive.

Instructions

In Viber this is not the case, but you can set a ban on determining geolocation from the device. How to disable location in Viber on Android:

• Open your phone settings.
• Go to "Privacy and Security." Or in the new OC there is a separate item, as in the screenshot;
• Click on the "Application Permissions" button.

• Now the "Location" tab.
• A list of applications will open. Find Viber in it and move the slider opposite it to the left.

And now how to remove your location in Viber on iPhone:

• • Go to settings.
  • Scroll to the very bottom of the screen.
  • Click on the Viber icon.

• Now "Geoposition".
• In the menu that opens, select “Never”.

Among the row useful functions The Viber text messaging service also has geolocation. Using the location sending function in Viber, we can inform our interlocutor about our exact coordinates. This allows you to tell your friends exactly where you are, which is sometimes convenient in unfamiliar areas or at crowded holidays. Coordinate information is attached to each outgoing message.

It should be noted, however, that the need to send data about one’s own coordinates via Viber does not arise for all users and not always. Many, on the contrary, are trying to find a way to disable location in Viber.

Managing geolocation in Viber on mobile devices is quite simple

• Disable location in Viber (geolocation, geo-tag or geotag) by touching the small arrow (pointing right and up) located next to the message text field. In this case, the color of the arrow changes to gray.
• Clicking this arrow again enables the geolocation feature. The arrow takes on a rich color, depending on the selected design theme.

It should be noted that for geolocation Viber does not use GPS functionality, which is available in many modern smartphones. It determines the subscriber's location based on signals from nearby base stations. In this regard, coordinates are not always determined accurately enough (accuracy ranges from 1 to 100 meters). If the subscriber is located in a city where there are a large number of base stations, then his geo-tag will be close to reality. If the owner of the smartphone is on the road, far from populated areas, then the accuracy of location determination in Viber leaves much to be desired.