Loopt, a revolutionary social-mapping service, launched new features that will extend the service and allow Loopt users to share location and status messages with friends on any mobile handset or carrier. Loopt is the only social-mapping service where users can choose to automatically update the location of everyone in a user's private network of friends and display that information directly on a map on their phone.

    Loopt now integrates with a user's mobile address book and AIM Buddy List, giving users the capability to share their real-time location via text or instant messages. Loopt users can simply send messages to friends and choose to automatically attach their location. For example, a text message or IM sent from Loopt to "join me for coffee" can be accompanied with '@ 5th & Main' and a link to view the location on a map.

    Users can turn off automatically-updated location sharing at any time, even on a friend-by-friend basis. Loopt is the social mapping leader in offering easy-to-use, intuitive and effective privacy controls and safety features. Loopt is 100 percent permission-based - a closed network where users share location information only with their known friends.

    Get alerts when friends are nearby. Send messages to a group of friends. Send web messages...just like email. Send proximity messages to your friends that are near you. You can even upload your picture right from your camera phone. Save your status messages and let friends know what you've been up to! Write in your friend's Journal and your friends can write in yours.

    Loopt co-founder and CEO Sam Altman stated: "The most common mobile question in the world is 'Where are you?' and we're excited that Loopt can extend the service to a larger mobile universe. Now, Loopt users can share their location with any friend so there'll never be any more missed social connections when everyone is on the go." Loopt works with leading online mobile, social networking and Internet privacy organizations such as the Family Online Safety Institute, Center for Democracy & Technology, and the Ponemon Institute. Loopt is also TRUSTe certified.

    Loopt also connects friends with a journaling feature that allows users to share "geo tagged" photos and comments, as well as send proximity-based messages to friends nearby. The service can even send alerts when friends are nearby or if a friend has left a journal comment, putting an end to missed connections in the real world. Loopt is currently rolling out these new features to its carrier partners. Current users of the Loopt service will receive an in-application message with upgrade details.

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