Many of you might already know about Nokia’s Friend View, the experimental location and micro-blogging service that was released a few months ago. The Nokia Beta Labs has recently announced that the S60 application has been updated with a Friend alerts feature, allowing users to feel even closer to their friends than before.

The updated version brings along some bug fixes as well as some small enhancements, yet there are notable improvements in the package as well, including the ability to run in the background in “Normal” or “Active” modes, while also sporting a Refresh Mode option. In addition, users will also have the ability to see which of their friends are closer to them through a new feature that the development team refers to as “pling-plung.” The alert feature is meant to work both when the application runs in the background and when it runs in the foreground.

Among the other new features that the update brings we can also count the ability to customize Friend alerts’ meeting zone in accordance with the place one lives or travels, or with the schedule one has, so as to set how close one's friends should be to receive alerts. Additionally, users will also be able to enjoy a handful of shortcuts that are available in Friend View, among which we can count:

- click 1 to open Friends
- click 2 to start writing a post
- click 3 to open What’s up!
- click # and * to zoom in and out
- click 0 to quickly locate yourself on the map
- click 8 to switch to panning or hopping mode on map
- click 5 to switch Refresh mode to get updates depending on your battery possibilities and your friends’ activity

Those who would like to try Nokia’s Friend View can find it available for download on Softpedia as well, via this link.