Snapchat announced two new Creative Tools and a new Group chat feature were now available on the social network starting Tuesday morning.
Snapchat is in a trench war with Instagram which launched its Stories feature to compete with Snapchat’s vanishing messages style.
However, Snap Inc. has made waves on its own with the launch of its first hardware piece: The Spectacles.
Snap’s Spectacles are a pair of sunglasses with a built-in camera that pairs with the wearer’s Snapchat account.
Snap could go even bigger early next year when it goes public on the market. The camera company will reportedly hold its IPO in March 2017 with a valuation estimated at $25 billion or more.
What is Snapchat Groups?
The latest social feature to land on Snapchat is Groups, a new way of communicating and sharing moments with up to 16 people.
Before the release of Groups, Snapchat users had to select individually each of the friends they wanted to share a snap with.
They had to repeat the process every time they wanted to share a snap with multiple people, even if the group of friends was the same one they had sent a snap to before.
How to use Groups and Quick Chat on Snapchat
To create and use a Group chat on Snapchat, users can first record the snap they want to share. They can also create a group when creating a new conversation by adding as many as 16 members at once.
Next, they need simply to send snaps as they would in any other chats. Like all Snapchat conversations, content on the group will vanish after 24 hours, whether people saw it or not.
Friends in a Group chat can open a Snap and replay it just once each time, after that it will disappear forever.
Snapchat displays the names of all the Group members at the bottom of the chat, allowing everyone to start one-on-one conversations with other users by simply tapping on his or her name.
This feature is called Quick Chat, and it allows a seamless transition between the Group and the regular chat. Snapchat users need only to swipe the Quick Chat to go back to the Group.
How to use the new Creative Tools: Scissors and Paintbrush
Much like all the other Creative Tools on Snapchat, Scissors and Paintbrush will be available for users to employ on the preview of a snap before sending it (either to a single person or a Group).
Scissors are a pretty straightforward tool: They trim the snap to focus on a particular area of the screen, and then, make the new image available as a sticker. Users can send the stickers created with Scissors on the new Snaps.
Paintbrush, on the other hand, is a hands-on drawing tool for snaps in the Memories reel.
These last two features will be initially available only on iOS devices, and the Android launch does not have a release date yet.
Source: Snap Inc