Snapchat is a great way to share photos and videos with friends, but the platform has become so big that thirsty brands wants in on the action, too. Sadly for brands, the Discover tab, where their content currently resides, hasn’t been attracting much engagement.
The latest Snapchat update is designed to help brands out, harnessing the same social sharing that drives content on Facebook and Twitter. Now users will be able to share content housed in the Discover tab with friends the same way they can share their own Snaps.
The update, which is expected to roll out soon on both iOS and Android, will let people Snap content from the Discover tab to their friends by tapping and holding on it. Snapchat will also allow users to treat the content like their own Snap, adding text, drawings, or filters.
Snapping content from the Discover tab opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Whether it’s a clip from CNN with a penis drawn on it or an ad from Coca-Cola with a penis drawn on it, you and your friends will be able to share content of all kinds—and probably draw penises on it.
Regardless of how the feature is used, what’s important to Snapchat—and more importantly, to brands and publishers—is users simply engaging with Discover. Snapchat wants to be a platform where brands create original, meaningful content, but without a share feature, that goal proved elusive. Users were expected to find Discover content themselves, like Twitter without retweets, hashtags, and links.
Now that Discover supports sharing, if you’re following a company that posts something you want your friends to see, it’s as easy as tap, hold, and Snap. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a small change, but Snapchat is hoping it will make all the difference.
H/T TechCrunch | Photo via AdamPrzezdziek/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)