Snapchat Stories is about to become much more group-based
Snapchat has introduced a new feature that finally adds one of the most requested features: custom Stories so that groups of friends can create shared stories within the app.
Groups can make two different types of custom stories: those linked to a specific location and those shared directly with a group of friends. In both cases, a custom story can be active within the app for more than 24 hours, but each piece of content shared in a story will only be live for 24 hours.
For stories tied to a specific place, the creator describes an area of about a city block and specifies whether they want only friends or friends of friends to be able to contribute to the story.
Once set up, custom location-based websites will appear within the app to those who have been granted access, just like sharing to “Our Story.”.
If you want a more personal custom story, you can also choose to create a story that will only be shared among specific friends you choose. In this case, you can define which friends can see the story and who can contribute – regardless of their location.
The features, which are starting to roll out to Snapchat's apps now, may seem like a relatively small change to Stories, but it's certainly a significant one. The feature has long been one of the app's most requested features, according to Snapchat.
It also comes at a crucial time for the app, which has to face increasing competition from Instagram. The addition of custom stories not only makes the messaging app more social, but also gives long-time users another reason to keep using it.
