About the Tweet Location Feature

Twitter's Tweet With Your Location feature allows you to selectively add location information to your Tweets. This feature is off by default and you will need to opt-in to use it.

If you're wondering How to Tweet With Your Location, please check out the How-To help page. This article provides:

• an overview of the Tweet With Your Location feature
• answers to privacy concerns
• answers to FAQ on Tweet With Location

Once you've opted-in:

• you will be able to add your location information to individual, new Tweets on Twitter.com and via other applications/mobile devices that support this feature.
• the publicly shared location information will be either your exact location (your coordinates) or your place (like a neighborhood or town).
• tweeting with your place or coordinates can add context to your updates and help you join the local conversation, wherever you are.

For example, here's a Tweet from @andrewhyde, letting us know about a conference in the Belltown neighborhood in Seattle:

Meanwhile, @colbay tweeted her exact point at the San Francisco Airport to let us know she's back from vacation:

Even once you turn Tweet with Your Location on, you have additional control over which Tweets (and what type of location information) is shared. The FAQ below has more information about how locations are displayed with your Tweets.

Your Privacy and Tweet with Location

We want you to have control over how and when your location information is shared. With this in mind:

• Tweet With Location is off by default, and as a user you need to opt-in to the service.
• You can turn Tweet With Location on or off at any time, or clear your location before you Tweet.
• You can delete all your past location data with a single click (see How to Tweet With Your Location for step-by-step instructions).
• Be cautious and careful about the amount of information you share online. There may be some updates where you want to share your location ("The parade is starting now." or "A truck just spilled delicious candy all over the roadway!"), and some updates where you want to keep your location private. Just like you might not want to tweet your home address, please be cautious in tweeting coordinates you don't want others to see.
• Remember that when you're opted in to Tweet With Your Location, you can still choose not to share your location for individual Tweets, or choose a more general location level if your application allows.
• Please familiarize yourself with our general location settings and the settings of any applications and devices you tweet with so that you are always aware of the information you share.
• Remember, once you post something online, it’s out there for others to see.

Tweet With Your Location FAQ

What location information is displayed?

• All geolocation information begins as an exact location (latitude and longitude), sent from your browser or device.
• Twitter won't show any location information unless you've opted-in to the feature, and have allowed your device or browser to transmit your coordinates to us.
• If you've opted in, Tweets can be annotated with just that exact location, with a place (a town or neighborhood), or with both types of information.
• For each Tweet, we will publicly display whatever location information you've elected to share. For example, if you update from Twitter Mobile and have specified that a particular Tweet should show your exact location, these coordinates can be seen on Twitter.com, Twitter mobile, and in third-party applications.
• If you choose to only share your place, those Tweets will only be displayed with the general neighborhood information.
• Application developers are required to be up-front and obvious about whether your exact coordinates will be displayed, or just the place. When you tweet from a third-party application or mobile device, it should be clear which type of data will be publicly displayed.

Why do I see a pin-pointed exact location for some Tweets but only the general vicinity (neighborhood or city) for others?

• Tweets can display the place, exact coordinates, or both.
• The default display is place location (like neighborhood or town).

For example, this Tweet only shows a place (the Goose Island neighborhood in Chicago):

If you select your exact location to be displayed, the actual coordinate can be publicly shared.

In the Tweet below, you'll see a pin icon in the top right hand corner of the Tweet, indicating that it's geotagged. Location information is displayed at the bottom of the Tweet, along with an exact point marker in the map to the right of the Tweet:

What location information does Twitter store?

• Twitter stores the location information that is publicly displayed with a Tweet for as long as the Tweet exists (or until you click the “clear my location history” button on the Settings page as described here). This is similar to how we store the time stamp that says when the Tweet was made.
• If you chose to tweet with a place, but not to share your exact coordinates, Twitter still uses and stores your coordinates to determine your Place, and will temporarily store those coordinates for 6 months.
• This helps improve the accuracy of our geolocation systems (for example, the way we define neighborhoods and places).

Which browsers support tweeting with location?

• Firefox 3.5 and up
• Google Chrome
• To use this feature on Twitter.com with other browsers (older versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer), you’ll need to download Google Gears.

Why does Twitter display where I used to live or work rather than my current location?

• Some services, such as Google, Skyhook Wireless, and others generate a database of WiFi signals mapped to locations. If you move and take your wireless router with you, these services may not have the up-to-date information and will still associate your WiFi signal with your old address.
• Firefox and browsers using Google gears access these sorts of databases to guess your location, and then pass this guess on to Twitter. This means that if your location was never updated in the database, then Twitter will guess the wrong location for you.
• If you are experiencing this problem and need to update your location, please click here (Google Users) or here (Skyhook Wireless Users).

What about international users?

We're working on rolling Tweet Location features out to other countries as fast as we can!

Still need help? Contact Support.