California: Where its social networking rivals are racing to promote more real-time sharing, Snapchat is turning its attention to the past. A new update introduced Memories – a feature that many Snapchatters have long been wanting – a way of saving, editing and sharing old snaps in a private archive inside the main app.
You can use Memories to create new Stories from Snaps you've taken, or even combine different Stories into a longer narrative, the firms shared in the announcement for Memories.
Most social media giants have features that remind users of past experiences, such as Facebook’s “On This Day” and the well-known app, Timehop.
But Snapchat landed in the competition when the firm took a significant shift for the famously ephemeral model.
User have been able to save pictures by taking screenshots of the Snap, but this new option houses it in the app -rather than the user's personal camera roll.
However, this is the first time the social network has let members use past posts in new stories and create longer ones with multiple images and videos.
Saving Snaps to Memories is similar to posting a photo or video in Story – ‘My Memories’ is located under your Story and other live stories.
Users can see their saved memories by swiping up from the camera screen and search for a specific Snap using keywords.
“It's super easy to find the Snap or Story you're looking for in just a few seconds by typing keywords like ‘dog’ or ‘Hawaii’— that way you can spend less time searching and more time enjoying your Memories,” explains Snapchat.
Once you open Memories, you will see your saved snaps in reverse-chronological order.
The feature will also stitch snaps and stories together for a live preview in order that encourages users to create ‘Memories’. It also added tabs that let users keep snaps and stories separated and organized.
Once you've added cute hearts or colourful words, your memory can be shared to your current story where it will be displayed with white frames and timestamps to let your followers know where and when it was taken or you can share it directly with specific contacts.
Memories shared to your story will only be shown for 24 hours.
This feature also has a password-protected section called 'My Eyes Only', which keeps your past snaps private.
“We realized that Snapchatters want to feel comfortable showing their Memories to friends while they're hanging out together, so we made it easy to move Snaps and Stories to My Eyes Only — and avoid awkward moments when a friend stumbles upon a Snap meant just for you,” shares Snapchat.
Snapchat further added by saying: “Memories is backed up by Snapchat. We won't backup any photos or videos from your Camera Roll, unless you use one to make a new Story or add it to My Eyes Only. In that case, we'll back up only the photo or video that you used.”
