When a friend hasn't updated her Snikkr location in a while, you can send them a "Ping". The ping message will ask them where they are, and will also send your location to them. This feature is especially useful if your friend is using a device like an iPhone, which can't run Snikkr in the background, or if you are not normally sharing your location with a friend, but need a one-time glimpse of where they are.

Snikkr will try to send the ping request as a "push" message. This is supported in version 1.5 of Snikkr on the iPhone and BlackBerry. If your friend has not registered for push, or is using a device that does not support it, Snikkr will send an email instead.

The ping message will ask your friend to open Snikkr in order to update their location. Once they run Snikkr, they will be asked if they want to accept or decline your ping request. If they accept, Snikkr will send you back a "pong" message, with your friend's location. As with the "ping", Snikkr will "push" this message to you if your device supports it. Otherwise, Snikkr will send you an email. You will also see your friend's location in the Pings and Pongs section of your friends list.

Tip: If you just want to send your location to a friend, and don't need to know their location, you can just use the "Send Location" command instead.

Whenever you start Snikkr, the application checks to see if there are any new pings that you need to respond to. If there are, Snikkr displays the "Batch Pong" screen, which allows you to "pong" multiple pings at once. The screen lists all the pings you have not responded to, and lets you select which ones you want to "pong". Any items that you deselect will be declined when you click the "Pong" button. The ones you have left selected will be sent your location.

If you have not run Snikkr in while, you sometimes get a ping from someone you do normally share your location with. In this case, when you run Snikkr, the application will automatically respond to the ping, and send your location to the friend. You will still see the ping in your Pings and Pongs list, but you will not need to manually take any action to respond.