You know how you watch something on Snapchat and your thumb gets tired and then you walk into a wall? (Just me? K). Well that is about to change forever. In a blog post the Snapchat team shared that now you only have to tap on a story to view it, so sort of like Instagram videos. But shhhh, this is totally different. Snapchat videos were the sort of the thing most users struggled with at the beginning. “What the hell, why is it only playing a second… oooh you should hold it in!” (Just me again? K).
According to the Snapchat blog post there is also new ways to make friends. Yasss, friends! You can now add them by location. Hello new Tinder, amirite? So picture this: You’re hanging out with some new buddies at the I-Love-Cats-Fest and you want them on Snapchat, so voila, quick and easy. All you do is get the entire group to open the Add Nearby feature, and everybody’s names quickly pop up on the screen. So no more listening to weird usernames, saying “What?” the whole time or adding the wrong ILoveCatsMoreThanLife.
Snapcodes also got a serious upgrade. “You can add a selfie to the centre of your Snapcode, so that it’s easier for friends to recognize you when you add them on Snapchat.” If you see a Snapcode in another app, just take a screenshot. You can add screenshotted Snapcodes through the Add Friends feature. Oh technology, how I love thee.
They also released a two-factor-authentication feature (like you use on Facebook and Twitter) to improve your security. So it won’t be easy for the baddies or your little brother to hack your account.
I checked it out, so if you want to skip a boring story you just tap on it again. And if you’re done watching a story, cause it SUCKS, you just have to drag down on the screen to close it.
The changes are out on Android and IOS. The team said it will take a little time getting used to, but it’s worth it.
Happy Snapping people! Make good choices.
(Shameless punt: you can follow our editor on Snapchat, her username is iamsamw22, sometimes she posts tech stuff.)
