Story Explorer: A New Snapchat Feature

Snapchat keeps surprising their users by adding unusual features to its app. A few days ‘Official Stories’ was launched, to help Snapchatters more easily discover and identify interesting Stories. The company updated its app once again yesterday and introduced a brand new feature called ‘Story Explorer’ that lets users dive further into Stories and view related snaps from different perspectives of the same moment in an effort to make its ‘Live Stories’ more interactive.

“Sometimes what’s happening goes beyond the Snaps we’ve curated into a Story. Today, we’re introducing Story Explorer.”

Snapchat says in a blog post on Monday,

“Story Explorer relies on technology developed by our research team to provide more depth to every Snap in a Story. When you see a moment that inspires or excites you, simply swipe up to see more Snaps of that same moment — from every perspective.”

LIVE STORIES

Snapchat’s Live Stories, is a cohesive stream of user submitted Snaps from various locations and events around the world. The app’s Live Stories list is a collection of snaps submitted by users. Live Stories expire after 24 hours and are themed around specific events, like an awards show, football game, or holiday.

HOW STORY EXPLORER WORKS

So when you feel like having more insight into a Special story that tickles your fancy, you can now swipe up on that particular snap and you’ll get multiple similar snaps from other users at the same event when browsing Live Stories. When you’re done simply swipe down on the screen to return back to the main Live Story you were viewing.

“It’s the first time you’ll be able to experience that incredible game-winning dunk from thousands of perspectives throughout the stadium — or feel like you’re right there on the scene when breaking news unfolds.”

Snapchat explained via Twitter that it determines the similarity of the snaps through a variety of factors, including “time/place, some computer vision, and more.”

The latest feature of the ephemeral messaging platform was initially launched on the New York and Los Angles Live Stories. The company says it has plans to roll out this technology across many more Stories very soon!