This topic is a little controversial. The question is about tracking somebody’s location using the Facebook messenger app. That, too, without their knowledge.
Many people online try to cheat the system for personal gain. Usually, when somebody’s location is being tracked online without their knowledge, it’s for shady reasons.
This article condemns unethical behavior, and I hope learning about this topic helps you protect yourself and your loved ones.
People don’t like thinking about unpleasant things, especially when things are going well.
My guess is you are a parent or someone concerned about their loved one. You might not be able to ask them their location for various reasons, and you might not want them to know you are keeping tabs on them.
It’s only natural to be concerned, so with that in mind, let’s see how you can use Facebook Messenger to track somebody’s location.
Can You Track On Messenger Without Them Knowing?
Facebook Messenger is an app for its users to chat with their friends. While you cannot really track somebody using only the messenger app, it can be useful for the job in some ways.
The app focuses on direct interactions and only shows some basic information.
That’s because rather than reading a para about a person on Messenger, you can just go to a user’s profile if you want to know more about them.
The simplest way to track someone on Facebook Messenger is to ask them to share their location. You can also share your location with them.
Obviously, this means that the person will find out. You can also use third-party tools and software to track people through Facebook Messenger. Some tools are given below.
If you are a concerned parent who would want to know where your family is all the time, I do strongly recommend using third-party security software. You have many of them, like Find My iPhone, which is exactly made for this reason.
Some apps also have other ways to protect your kids, like blocking unwanted websites. Having such an app on all the devices in your home is a good idea.
Let’s look at ways to track someone using Messenger with a little detective work.
How To Track Someone On Messenger Manually?
Well, before we get into the steps, tell me why are you tracking that person today, huh?
Anyways, you can answer that using the comments section below (when you’ve scrolled to the very end)…let’s quickly look at the process for now.
1. The About Section in Their Profile
The first thing you want to do is to go to the person’s Facebook profile and go to the About section.
If it is public information that this person has added, you can narrow down rough areas, like which country or city.
You can only see the publicly shared part if you are not friends. Even if you guys are friends, the person has to make it available. You can choose who sees what on your Facebook profile with many customizations.
Some people add info like their birthdate and city to Facebook so that they don’t have to manually write the information every time they sign-up on a new website.
They can just log in with their FB and give permission to share the info.
They don’t share it with the public on FB, though, as sometimes people even want to keep their birthdates hidden so they can see who their real friends are. Either way, a person’s profile should be the first thing you investigate.
Scrolling down in the About section, you will also find a section called “Check-Ins.” It will have all locations the person has tagged in their posts.
2. Look At What They Are Posting
Now we are clearly treading into stalker territory. But that feels kinda creepy, so let’s stick to the detective analogy and call it investigative research. This way, you can maintain your dignity when doing questionable things.
What a great Life Hack! You heard it here first.
The idea is simple, though. Look at any online activity available to you to determine where this person is.
Their pictures can show you landmarks, and the upload times and dates can help you get a timeline.
However, posts can be misleading since people upload when they want and not as soon as they take a photo. Somebody’s picture in Thailand on their profile doesn’t mean they’re there right now.
So keep that in mind as you put the pieces together, Holmes. You can also gain insights from their statuses and hashtags. If they’ve enabled location, the posts will also have the location right below your name and profile picture.
3. Their Stories
This one gets a special mention because nowadays, a lot of people are sharing posts and stories directly from Instagram to Facebook.
Instagram stories are pretty popular and commonly public, so it’s a good source of information.
On LinkedIn, all of a person’s activity is shown on their profile and can be viewed by anyone. Facebook is not so convenient.
In fact, people are more concerned about sharing their location now than ever before.
That’s why you’ll see Facebook leaning away from that stuff. In fact, until 2022, we also had a couple of other features, including Nearby Friends. These features were underused, and they made users feel uncomfortable.
4. Other Social Media
Since Facebook bought Instagram, both platforms have been connected in a few ways. Usually, if a person has an account on one, they also use the other. Try searching for the person’s name on IG and other social media platforms.
Also, try searching for the person on Google. At this point, you are totally stalking that person, so I hope you have a good reason, detective. *wink*
Even if their IG profile is locked to the public, you can usually still read their bio and view stories. Doing your research means making the most of all your sources.
5. Request The Person
Now there are a couple of, even more questionable ways to do this without the person finding out.
Before I share those, I would like you to take a long, hard look at your life and think, “What Would Jesus Do?”
You can replace Jesus with your favorite character, and I hope the answer gave you a little clarity about your life choices.
Seriously though, take a breath, stop momentarily, and think about why you don’t want the person to know you’re tracking them.
Unless you are being a creep, asking them to share their live location with you is probably much faster and easier. You can even see exactly how far they are from you by clicking on the bullseye button below the zoom +/- buttons.
How To Track Via Tools
This is the final and actual answer to this query. Yes, you can track somebody on Facebook Messenger without them knowing. You can do this using various third-party apps.
The number of options available might disturb you. Take care to learn from this information and tell people how they can protect themselves from cybercrime.
Let’s look at 3 of these tracking tools:
1. Grabify or Any IP Logger
If you don’t know what an IP Logger is, get ready to be shocked. Cookies and IP addresses have always been used online to collect purchase information and study consumer behavior.
But today’s IP Logger market is very competitive, and the technology has become inexpensive. This means that there are tons of free tracking options that anyone can use to get information on other people.
So this app/website is called Grabify, a leading IP Logger and Tracker. Here’s how it works:
- You need to go to Grabify link and enter a target page’s link. A target page would be one that you want to send people to for getting their information.
- The website will give you a new link that’s shortened. You need to send this link to the person you want to track.
- When the person clicks on it, you can check their information based on their IP address through the website.
There’s a lot you can do with the IP address itself, but Grabify will give you info like the country, state, city, and even region of the user.
You can also find out some information about the device they were using and more.
This is still acceptable for online marketers and people who are into sales. These people just want to use the data to improve their selling process.
If an individual uses these services, it is considered unethical and a breach of private information.
These might not work very well in the first place if the person clicking on the link is using a VPN.
The lesson you should learn from this is to never click on any random link from an unsecured channel.
If you woke up and chose violence today and want to use an IP Logger anyway, there are tons of free options, so nobody can really stop you.
2. Truecaller or Any Phone Number Locator
This is another thing you can do. If you have a phone number you want to find out more about, many companies can help you. Truecaller is by far the biggest one.
Facebook was started at a time when people used to put their info online more easily. You might be surprised to find many About sections with a phone number even today.
A quick Google search of the number will tell you which country is from. You can also use Truecaller to see the caller ID on that platform. Truecaller is pretty huge, so I suggest giving it a try.
Every country has its system for phone numbers, and you can find specific phone number locators for where ever you are right on Google.
3. Find My Kids or Any Monitoring App
You might have noticed that most of these options either require permission from the target or requires them to do some action or another.
Facebook, especially has faced a ton of scrutiny regarding the privacy of its users.
That’s why the company has taken active steps to avoid information leakage. For those reasons, locating someone through Facebook Messenger is a little tricky.
If you are serious about tracking someone without them finding out for legitimate reasons, I think you need a monitoring app.
Obviously, you also need access to the actual devices and consent from the user.
If it’s your kids, though, an app like Find My Kids might be your best option. This one is perfect for you because it will give you a lot of information, including the screen time of your children.
Location is obviously there, as well as the option to turn on the microphone remotely to hear their surroundings. It’s all very cool, and this app is just one of many.
Should You Track Someone’s Messenger?
Don’t be so concerned with “how” to do something that you skip the question of “if” you should do it in the first place. I’ve already talked a little about this, so my answer might not surprise you.
If you are an individual, you should not do this without permission because it’s an invasion of privacy. Call me crazy, but I like to hope that most people know that already.
People in the digital marketing space freely track people’s geographical locations for business and analysis.
Those professionals earn their livelihoods from online traffic and have to make strategic decisions based on the information.
If you are tracking someone on Messenger for personal reasons without their consent, this is not okay, and you shouldn’t do it. If you are doing it as market research for a business idea, I think that’s fine.
Ultimately, the person who runs a legitimate business will be providing a lot of value to many people.
What Troubles Can You Get into?
You could face a bunch of major issues:
- Your audience or the person you were tracking could boycott and ostracize you. Non-consensual tracking is a breach of trust and can cause irreparable damage to a relationship.
- Your Facebook account might very well get reported, and you might get blocked over something like this.
For the most part, for something like this, you would only get in serious trouble if you actually hurt someone. Crime works like that; criminals are prosecuted after the damage is done.
In terms of legal action, though, the laws in your country would make the biggest difference in this regard.
In Conclusion
I hope you found these ways of stalking your…Er, I mean, protecting your loved ones is useful. While I’ve mentioned Truecaller and Grabify here, you can explore many different tools and apps.
If you want to protect your loved ones, I suggest a monitoring app like Find My Kids. It’s essential to keep track of where your friends and family are because close relationships are one of the most crucial things in life.
Don’t do anything nefarious to hurt anyone, and everything will be fine.
