The pic messaging and multimedia mobile app Snapchat was designed with one key feature in mind for its content: ephemerality. That means that whatever photos and multimedia have been shared using the platform will not be around permanently, but rather purged on a routine schedule. From that basic framework, the app further developed and expanded its services, now including the use of peripheral hardware like Snapchat Spectacles.
Such has been the growth of the app service that its parent company SNAP Inc. has begun setting up international offices and even started trading on the stock market with its IPO.
Now the app is about to take its most dramatic step yet: the option for users to make their content available permanently.
Up to infinity
Snap Inc. has revealed several new features for Snapchat just this Tuesday May 9. Perhaps the most important of these, however, is an additional option when posting content, the “Infinity” icon. As it implies, Snapchat users clicking the infinity icon when posting their pictures or media on the platform will now be able to keep it there for as long as they want. This means the Snap can be viewed by their friends for as long and as often as they’d want.
In a blog post detailing the Tuesday updates, Snap Inc. elaborated further on the infinity icon. "We've all felt the frustration of not being able to fully enjoy a Snap -- even after replaying it,” so went the statement.
“And we wanted to give you the option of allowing the recipient to enjoy your Snap as long as they'd like."
Of course, “infinite” still doesn’t mean “permanent” on Snapchat. The infinity icon only keeps a Snap photo or vid for as long as the user wants it up. Once they decide that a Snap of theirs has been seen enough, one tap will enable them to close it, causing an instant deletion.
Loops and draws
The infinity icon isn’t the only new thing on Snapchat this week. The company has also introduced a new option for video Snaps as well: looping. A new “Looping” icon has been added for when users are taking a video, which when click will have the vid replay ad infinitum while being viewed, until the friend who received the Snap either closes it or looks at another post on the user’s Snapchat story.
Finally, there are some new drawing tools that will enable Snapchat users to art up their content. There is the “Doodle” tool that has a library of instant emoji, and the “Magic Eraser” that can clean up details in the Snap photo or vid. These updates are really showcasing the new power of Snap Inc.’s flagship app, even as the company itself gets ready to report its first quarterly earnings after going public, on Wednesday, May 10.
