5 Ways Snapchat 2.0 Won Back Social Media
Social media is a fickle old game; one post might have you blushing at the abundance of likes your latest Instagram offering has received while the next you’re wondering if your Wi-Fi is playing up or systems are down which would explain the reason for the tumbleweed trawling across your account. This is true for the everyday users posting selfies and pictures of their #dinner, to the pros being paid to pose, all the way up the execs in the hot-seats. Just ask Tom from MySpace.
With this in mind, you may have noticed the semi-sudden onslaught of Snapchat all over your social media sphere, because it most certainly is back, and this time it’s not to aid the social suicide of tweens and teens sending risqué photos of themselves which promised to self-destruct after ten seconds (but as I’m sure actually ended up doing the rounds in quite a few circles). This time, Snapchat is more engaging, more mature and has developed something of a competitive streak to boot.
With the arrival of the Snapchat 2.0 comes a relatively small but immensely important selection of new features to keep the user entertained and the Snapchat brand on top. Here they are:
- Suckers for stickers
In-keeping with our unrelenting love affair with all things emoji, Snapchat has uncovered a whopping 200 stickers which can be used in private chats. No longer will you be lost for words when you have a whole new set of stickers with which to express yourself. While this may seem like a small advancement, it has helped propel the social media app closer to the likes of Facebook.
- More reasons to #tbt
Perhaps the most popular advancement of the 5 is the ability to now upload photos already saved to your phone. While on one hand this could be interpreted as somewhat sacrificial to Snapchats unique ‘in the moment’ mentality, on the other it is a shrewd move towards the previously unobtainable sharing of memories and moments from the past. An impressive attempt at unlocking doors and bringing Snapchat closer to its social media competition, whilst also a move many fans of the app will have long been waiting for.
- 3D stickers we didn’t ask for
As if Snapchat giving us stickers wasn’t enough, you can now pin these stickers or emojis to a particular object, with your camera ensuring these pinned where you want for the duration of the clip, taking creativity to a new level. Kudos to the product development team over at Snapchat for this one, social media innovation at its finest!
4. One nil to the little guy
Without a doubt the biggest and most brazen development to accompany Snapchat 2.0 is their step forward into the realms of voice and video calls. You’d be forgiven for thinking this endeavour somewhat frugal as no-one actually speaks to each other on the phone anymore, but in fact it’s essentially the cherry on top of an already impressive cake. On no other free, mainstream app can you communicate as fluidly via audio, video, long and short form text, photos and drawings with users ranging from your next door neighbour to Kylie Jenner. And who among us can say that they even saw it coming? Well played Snapchat, very well played.
5. Auto-Advance
Another example of Snapchat keeping up with its rivals is the introduction of Auto-Advance stories. Similar to the constant flow of videos that roll out on YouTube and Facebook once you hit the play button, Snapchat has modernised its user experience and discovered a sharp way of increasing its users view count.
By Aisling Lewis
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