Since its release in September of 2011, Snapchat has taken smartphones by storm, helping the good people of the world share pictures of their cat, videos of awesome concerts and arguably the most important user-generated content out there– the selfie. The newest update, released to smartphones last Tuesday, has changed the storytelling game. Here’s why:
In With The New
The newest feature, Discover, allows Snapchatters to interact with 12 different brands, including Cosmopolitan, National Geographic and ESPN, changing the user experience entirely. Users can still share their shameless selfies with their friends, but they can also try a delicious recipe provided by The Food Network edition or watch a clip of Broad City via the Comedy Central edition. Discover transforms the app into a mini news hub of sorts and connects users to content in an alternative way, which allows Snapchat to shed its reputation of being strictly a picture/video sharing app.
New Content, Same Aesthetic
Although the update was drastic, the user-friendliness and familiarity of Snapchat remains. Consumers can still take and view pictures, add text and filters, and set timers. The app provides new content to users in one seamless update all while sticking to the foundational aspect of the app– photo and video sharing. Additionally, there is a cap on how many stories users are able to view per 24 hours, which coincides with the “disappearing content” characteristic that Snapchat has etched as their namesake since the beginning.
Emphasis On The Creative
Team Snapchat noted in their latest blog post, the new update was designed to pay homage to the editors, writers and artists that work hard to create meaningful and interesting content. Each 24-hour edition is hand-picked by editorial teams, allowing them to generate the content. As Team Snapchat simply stated in the blog post, “This is not social media,” rather, it is something much more; a medium that allows users to experience the content created by the artists the way they intended.