Autoplay Just Made Snapchat WAY Better
Whenever software and app developers release product updates, their marketing teams would like you to think that the changes are monumental or will drastically change your experience with their product. In most cases, updates purely serve as a way to fix bugs or make some slight tweaks to the UI.
I am not one to speak in hyperbole, but Snapchat’s recent update is really a game changer. And no, it’s not Chat 2.0.
The Rise of Autoplay
Autoplay for videos has been around for quite a while on both Facebook and YouTube, the current video sharing giants. But in case you haven’t noticed, Snapchat has incorporated its own autoplay of sorts.
The reason this update is so huge comes down to improved UX and better branding.
Autoplay
Have you ever found yourself eager to catch up with all of your favorite content creators on Snapchat at the end of the day only to be discouraged by an incessant amount of tapping?
Enter the autoplay. All you have to do now is fire up a story in your feed, and you can do one of three things:
- Tap through to the next snap(s).
- Swipe down to go back to your feed.
(^ both of which you could already do)
3. Swipe left to skip to the next story.
That 3rd option is what’s totally awesome and brand new. Say you’re mid-story for one of the accounts you follow, but this particular story isn’t all that interesting. Swipe left, and you’re already launched into the next story in the queue.
This may seem like nothing, but removing one less step to keep engaged in the platform will make users stay even longer. You need to realize that this is important because this will eventually contribute to increasing the ever waning attention span on a platform that’s getting noisier every day.
Branding
If you decide to watch a story from beginning to end, Snapchat will automatically begin to play the next story in your feed. To ensure you know which account’s story you’re watching, the Snapchat account name can be seen in the upper left hand corner:
For all you marketers out there, any increased branding should at least be seen as potential upside. Not to mention that your views may shoot up in the coming weeks.
Some Things To Keep In Mind
This update will undoubtedly make everyone’s view counts skyrocket.
Will they be legitimate views? Only time will truly tell.
Why will they go up? Well, consider the fact that followers no longer need to hand select the Stories they watch. They can, but they don’t have to. By tapping on the most recent Story, they can view everyone’s content that they follow without touching the screen again. That’s huge!
To understand what I’m trying to get at, it’s important to know the rise of Facebook video.
A little more than a year ago, many of you may remember when Facebook began to support native video so creators and users abroad could upload their content directly. Between June 2014 and January 2015, Facebook reported more than 1 billion views per day.
At this point its hard to say how Facebook continues to stack up against YouTube, but it’s clear that video has become a huge part of the Facebook experience. However, the clear difference between YouTube and Facebook is what they count as a view.
YouTube has generally been quite vague but generalized that views are counted after 30 seconds, whereas Facebook will count views after 3 seconds. Not only that, but Facebook will count views for videos that autoplay in the newsfeed even if the user never expanded or un-muted the video.
(I highly recommend you check out this piece by Hank Green.)
This relates to Snapchat immensely because everyone’s view counts will increase accordingly in the next few weeks. The challenge is whether or not they stick around for your entire story.
Final Thoughts From a Broken Record
Many of us on Snapchat have been touting the importance of calculating viewer retention rates, and this will become even more important with this most recent update. Overall, this data should be giving you the best idea of which content performs best with your audience.
The added benefit of more views on the beginning series of snaps means you’ll be able to snag their attention slightly easier than relying on followers opening your stories.
I mean, making it easier to get your followers’ attention is a good thing, right?
Thanks for reading! Think I missed anything? Be sure to let me know or to recommend this piece if you enjoyed it!
And by the way, are we friends yet on Snapchat?
