Snapchat Stories will soon be available on Tinder, Houseparty, other apps
More than two years after Facebook started copying Snapchat's Stories feature, Snap has a new plan to get its Stories in more places.
The company is bringing its Stories to third-party apps like Tinder and Houseparty as it deepens its relationship with outside developers. Snap announced the move at its Partner Summit in Los Angeles Thursday.
The update, which comes with the expansion of Snap's developer platform, allows app makers to place Snapchat Stories inside their own apps with a new API called App Stories. With Tinder, one of the first apps to get the feature, this means you can send snaps directly from Snapchat to the dating app, where prospective matches can check out your story.
Another app using App Stories: Houseparty, the video chat app that's often seen as a potential Snapchat competitor. Houseparty will allow friends to view Stories in its app as a way to connect when they aren't video chatting.
For Snap, which has long dealt with Facebook's constant copying of Stories, the move could help rejuvenate its Stories feature, which has taken a backseat as the company has emphasized connections between close friends over publicly-viewable Stories.
The company is also expanding other feature to more apps.
Bitmoj, will soon be coming to Venmo, and are launching now on Fitbit smartwatches -- the first time the popular animated avatars have been available outside of a smartphone. With Fitbit's new Bitmoji watch face, the Bitmoji will automatically change based on your activity.
And Netflix, GoFundMe, VSCO, and Anchor will soon be able to share content directly from their apps to Snapchat.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Snap announced a new advertising component to its developer platform: Ad Kit, a tool that allows app makers to target their ads to Snapchat users outside of Snapchat. The software, which uses Snap's new "Audience Network" will let advertisers re-use their vertical video ads outside of Snap.
The new ad product won't launch for a few more months, and details about exactly how it will work are still unclear, but Snap has said the new ad tools will respect users' privacy and track a minimal amount of user data.
Topics Snapchat Social Media
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
