Are You Keeping Up?

2016 has definitely been a great start for Snapchat. With more and more users signing up and the increasing number of brands joining this social platform, Snapchat has taken the lead as one of the most engaging apps currently out there. What continues to fuel its popularity, is that it never ceases to find new and exciting features to introduce. Just this past week, a new version was released — introducing a slew of new features for users and brands to take advantage of.

Originally, Snapchat was more of an app that focused solely on sharing photos. However, with recent updates, users are now also able to call friends and engage with other users like never before. This is in addition to the option to send up to 10 second long private video/audio notes to your list of friends. With over 200 stickers now also available, users are able to combine messages with a variety of different stickers. The combination of these new features directs the app in a new direction, where it can be used as a collaboration tool.

Snapchat has become a combination of video, audio, text, symbols and drawings. For the modern day user, this is the perfect all-in-one app that allows you to engage with your family and friends in multiple ways. An added bonus is that it is an app that is very simple and straightforward to use — allowing the user base to cross multiple generations.

The biggest update that was recently made involves auto advance stories — further increasing the number of views. Once one story ends, the one below it in a user’s story timeline will start to play immediately. This enables users to view all available stories at once, uninterrupted. The overall increase in the number of story views will ultimately drive the rate of engagement. This is critical to brands, as it will allow users to view all photos and video clips in sequence.

With the latest update, Snapchat seems to be going in the right direction by having its users try different things on the app. It has evolved to become far more than just a photo/video app. It is now widely recognized as an effective communication tool for both general users and brands alike.