Snapchat’s Story: Popular app gets bigger and better through the years

By: Miranda Cole

“Did you get the new Snapchat update?”

“Do you like the new Snapchat update?”

When Snapchat launched in July of 2011, it was originally called Picaboo. When it first launched, users could send a “selfie” for one to 10 seconds, write a small message on it and doodles if they desired.

Today, users still have those features, but there are so many more things one can do. In October of 2013, Snapchat released the “Story” feature to users. This allowed the users to post photos or videos to all of their “friends” and allow them to view them as many times as they wanted for 24 hours. At first, people complained about the feature, but now people post things on their stories daily.

The story feature has been very popular at Cedar Falls. “I like the Snapchat story feature because it’s easier than sending mass snaps to everyone individually. As long as people don’t add a bunch of stuff to their story, I watch them since they are usually funny,” senior Madisen Timmer said.

Along with the stories, Snapchat included the “Discover” option, which allows the viewer to watch stories that consist of short video clips and some new articles. They include writers such as Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Food Network, Comedy Central and more. Like the stories, Timmer enjoys using discover. “Other than watching my friends’ stories, I also like to watch the Iowa Story and the stories that take you to different places around the world. It’s almost like you’re experiencing it first hand.”

In June of 2014, Snapchat added the “chat” feature, which is basic text messaging that allows users to see when the other person is typing or opens a message. Also, while users are both in the chat at the same time, they can video chat with each other.

Along with that, Snapchat added filter options to add to the snaps. This year a “Tiger Nation” filter has been added to Snapchat. Snapchat will also show different filters based on user location. For example, for the UNI Dome, there’s a UNI filter, and the state users are in can lead to filters with those states’ names on them. The filters also show users’ speeds if they were moving while taking pictures, the time the pictures were taken and temperature.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.