How to Set Up Snapchat’s Upgraded Location-Tracking Feature on Your Teen’s Phone

Published: February 19, 2026

social media, snapchat — Photo by Ingmar on Unsplash

By India McCarty

Snapchat just announced an expansion of their “Home Safe” feature, intended to help parents keep track of their children while they’re on the go.

“We believe that staying connected and keeping the people you trust informed of where you are should feel natural and effortless,” Swetha Dhamodharan, senior product director at Snapchat, told Parents. “With expanded arrival notifications that support more locations and everyday routines, Snapchatters can now seamlessly share updates as they go about their day.”

“Home Safe,” launched last year, lets users set a location as “Home.” When they arrive at that location, an automatic alert is sent to a trusted contact, letting parents know exactly when their children arrive home.

Now, Snapchat has expanded the feature, allowing alerts to be set for any destination, so parents can keep track of their children’s movements.

“Snapchatters can set one-time or recurring alerts for places beyond their home, offering a simple, automatic way to share when they’ve arrived where they are going,” a statement from Snapchat shared. “Arrival Notifications now work for everyday moments — like letting someone know you’re back for the night while traveling, or automatically sharing when you arrive at a weekly class, practice, or meeting — without needing to remember to send a message.”

Now you can set alerts for any destination https://t.co/xE8pXN6eag

— Social Media Today (@socialmedia2day) February 10, 2026

To set this feature up on your child’s phone, just open their Snapchat account, tap on the friendship profile and scroll down to “arrival notifications.” Select a location on the map and assign it a label, like “soccer field” or “Sarah’s house.” Choose either a one-time or recurring alert, and the app will immediately start notifying you when your child arrives at that location.

Snapchat is one of the few social media and networking sites that can be used fairly safely. Parents reported that the fact that Snapchat’s images and messages disappear after a certain amount of time make it easier to keep content away from predators or cyberbullies.

“It also doesn’t feed the same hunger for ‘likes’ that the other social platforms do, where it’s all about displaying the most perfect picture to gain as many ‘likes’ as possible,” Talia Arnold, head of strategy at digital media company Exverus, told the outlet.

Snapchat’s content is also curated based on interests, making it unlikely your child will accidentally come across inappropriate material. It’s also safer than many online chatting platforms, as users have to have the phone number and username of people they want to interact with, so your children won’t receive messages from strangers.

Snapchat’s upgraded location tracking feature is a helpful and easy way for parents to keep track of their children.

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.