Snapchat just did the most anti-Snapchat thing ever
Once upon a time, Snapchat was about ephemerality.
The origin of Snapchat came from a desire to send nudes and have them disappear. Of course, sexting wasn't its only use case. Middle schoolers also wanted to pass notes in class without getting caught by their teachers, for example.
Well, it's 2017, and apparently nothing is sacred anymore. Snapchat now wants to help you relive moments from the app.
On Wednesday, Snapchat began rolling out a new feature that lets users see a selection of their 2017 Memories. Such an idea may sound familiar. You may recall another social network named Facebook gifting its users with daily memories of their Facebook posts in addition to a year in review video at the end of every year.
Now, Snapchat is doing the same thing. The company is pulling from all those snaps in user’s Snapchat Memories, a feature it released in July 2016 that lets people save any photo or video taken within the app. It was Snap's first leap into stepping away its unique ephemerality.
Here's how to access your own custom "Look Back at 2017" video:
Tap the Memories icon (bottom of Snapchat's first screen)
The 2017 Story will appear at the top of the “ALL” (first) tab
Why those photos and videos? According to Snapchat, the "Look Back at 2017" video is unique to each user and are selected based on location, date, and caption associated with each snap.
Alright, maybe we're unreasonably bothered by this, and maybe other Snapchat users are happy to look back at their 2017 Memories. According to Snapchat, more than one-third of its daily active users access their Snapchat Memories every day. Tens of millions also save snaps to their Memories every day.
On the upside, at least Snapchat didn't pull a Facebook and not allow users edit their videos. Snapchat users will be able to watch, edit, save, and then (if they so wish) share with their friends on the app. We just prefer, however, to keep our memories to ourselves and the cringeworthy flashback videos on Facebook.
Topics Facebook Snapchat Social Media
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
