Update November 10, 2017:
Looks like Instagram is now doing this in their Stories Update :)
So I’m browsing through Justin Kan’s Snapchat story. Suddenly Qasar appears in one of his Snaps. Justin tells everyone to add “qasar” on Snapchat. Of course I’ll add the COO of Y Combinator. So I exit out of Justin’s Snapchat story and pop open the Add Friends menu and then…
What was his username again? Quasar? Qasar? Younis? Oops…
I go back to Justin Kan’s story to rewatch the Snap of Qasar’s username. Shit. It moved onto the next Snap. I exit out of the story and scroll down my friend’s list to find Justin Kan. I fast forward his entire Snapchat story from the beginning to find Qasar again. Derp. His username was “qasar” all along. I go back to Add Friends and add him. And then I close Snapchat.
While that was an exaggerated narrative, adding Snapchat users should definitely be a seamless process from within a story. The current flow disengages the user from the Snapchat story which isn’t a great experience. So here’s a simple solution:
On the edit Snap screen, there should be an option to mention another user. Let’s use the @ icon.
A user viewing a Snap containing a mention should see a badge (with the personalized ghost and their username). Tapping on the badge should pause the Snap and bring up the Add modal. Add the individual, and the story resumes.
Simple as that. I’m sure Gary Vaynerchuk would appreciate this feature. He’s introducing new people to Snapchat and giving them shoutouts all the time.
