Also, a Live Stories section will be available alongside the Stories and Discover pages, a sign that the live stories function is successful enough to warrant extra attention.
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The Stories page is where users view recent snaps shared by those they follow, along with the ability to view created content provided in the Live section, which includes current event topics such as “Bernie vs. Hillary” or whatever sports game or awards show is now on or trending.
However, it’s potentially really bad news for publications, for whom part of the usefulness of being on that Discover page is being able to reach people who might not normally be following their brand of content.
Users do also have the option of unsubscribing from a publisher at any time.
Previously, the only way to distinguish between publications was their logos.
Snapchat is introducing some big changes to its app in order to boost traffic to publishers’ content, as it makes a more aggressive push to generate revenue.
Instead of a circle encasing a logo, there are now Pinterest-like tiles that allow publishers to add an image, headline and caption to peek a user’s interest to click and watch. Once you are subscribed to a publisher, you will get stories from the publisher under your Recent Updates tab. You can, for instance, now check out IGN’s New Mirror’s Edge review, right from the Stories section.
(Photo: Snapchat) Left: Old Discover; Right: New Discover. These changes bring some significant visual updating and, hopefully, slightly more intuitiveness to an app that has been notorious for its confusing and convoluted interface.
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This has made Snapchat an attractive channel for advertising, particularly for companies interested in targeting a younger demographic, and the new updates to the app’s UI will make it even easier for advertisers to engage those potential customers.
