Those disappearing Snapchats just got a little staying power.
Snapchat announced Snapchat Stories Wednesday, a new feature that allows users to compile photos and videos taken through the app into a montage of sorts that will live on for 24 hours. Now when users take photos and videos, they can elect to include them in their Snapchat Story, which is viewable an unlimited number of times by any of their friends. (You can also make stories available to the public.)
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After 24 hours, the images and videos in a user's story will disappear, making room for new content. "Your Story never ends and it’s always changing," the Snapchat Team wrote on the company's blog. "The end of your Story today is the beginning of your Story tomorrow." All photos and videos in the montage will include a list of people who have viewed it.
The new update could mean a handful of positive changes for Snapchat. For starters, it brings people to the app regardless of whether they have received an actual snap. In theory, there will now be a steady stream of ever-changing stories from your friends on the app, meaning users can come to Snapchat just like they would Facebook or Twitter to browse what their friends have been up to.
An example of how Snapchat Stories will work from the Snapchat blog.
The new update also brings about a monetization conversation for the startup. It's unclear whether the new Story feature could be helpful to brands or small businesses — they could make their Stories public but it may be difficult for others to find the videos. It does seem to offer a natural transition into video advertising on the platform, but with the update less than 24 hours old, Snapchat has yet to address the ways in which this new feature could provide revenue for the company.
In many ways, the new feature changes the nature of the app, moving it away from private sharing to a more public, Instagram-type function. Users can still share Snapchat photos or videos without electing to include them in their Story, but the prospect of creating more visually appealing montages seems to deviate from the app's original function. (Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel has continually stated the app was not invented for sexting, but the fact that photos self-destruct after sending makes Snapchat a more natural way to send pictures you don't want others to see.)
Of course, one major holdup to making Snapchat an Instagram or Twitter equivalent for sharing photos and videos: the resolution. Part of what makes users OK with losing their Snapchat photos forever is that the quality has never been very good anyway. This is especially true for the app's videos. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel discussed the low quality video and plans to improve it with reporters on Twitter.
@jennydeluxe @mattbuchanan honestly the pixelated video is brutal. But the compression helps avoid burning through data plans…
— Evan Spiegel (@evanspiegel) October 3, 2013
@jennydeluxe @mattbuchanan next update improves video quality with a smaller file size. Just need to stabilize Stories first :)
— Evan Spiegel (@evanspiegel) October 3, 2013
According to Spiegel's tweets, it looks like Snapchat will be coming out with higher quality video in the near future, which should help users create more appealing Stories. Snapchat Stories have no time limit, according to Spiegel, and a sample video sent to users by the Snapchat team was close to 40 seconds long. That could be a long time to watch a montage full of low res-images and video.
@mattbuchanan @jennydeluxe definitely. We’re not talking HD - just something a little less terrible
— Evan Spiegel (@evanspiegel) October 3, 2013
If Snapchat can improve the quality of content, there's a chance this new feature could help it significantly grow its already impressive user base. The company announced in June that users send 200 million messages per day, and that number should increase if Stories are well received.
The new feature was released for both iOS and Android Wednesday.
Do you think Snapchat's change is a watershed moment for the platform? Tell us in the comments below.
Image: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images