Snapchat Launches 24-Hour “Stories”

Snapchat, a photo-sharing service known for its self-destructing snaps, now wants its photos to hang around a while with "Stories."

Snapchat's "ephemeral messaging" already allows users to send a photo or video to someone that would disappear in 10 seconds or less (except for those users who could hack the system on their iPhones), according to AllThingsD. With its new "Stories" feature, Snapchat can also let users share photos in a 24-hour period without having to send anything out.

Friends can now have unlimited views of a user's bank of photos for a 24-hour period, be that of the user's breakfast, dog, cat, or workplace. Snapchat still revels in the moment, which is why anything more than a day would appear stale to its younger users.

Is this an attempt to gain more users interested in a social network? It's possible that the daily photos could act as status updates for friends, but likely only for those already using Snapchat.

According to AllThingsD, the new service isn't intuitive and involves "stitching pictures together."

Snapchat has been touted as a reason Facebook will die, but unlike Facebook, Snapchat itself tends to be less active and more passive, with users experiencing others' photos rather than users sending their own as answers or comments. "Stories" seems to encourage that mentality even more with friends simply looking through daily photos that weren't even sent to them.

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