Twitter looks at Snapchat
One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are only available for a short time before they become unreachable. The app has go from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to featuring "Stories" of 24-hour chronological content, along with "Discover" to let brands show ad-supported short-form entertainment. Its growth and characteristics have made other social networks to give it more than a look.
Since the end of January, rumors of an upcoming Twitter update pointed to a source of inspiration: Snapchat. As Instagram did and then its matrix, Facebook, with the format of "ghost" files (the Stories), Twitter could present a very similar tool to maintain its leadership of news content on social networks. It was announced by Mashable in January and confirmed by CNBC this week, with an important explanation: the update may never come.
However, according to sources close to the company, Twitter is currently developing its own Stories format, which will allow users to watch videos and photographs of certain events from the "Discover" tab. Twitter boasts of being a social news network, but in reality Snapchat is usually the digital medium in which events can be seen most quickly.
Despite allowing images and videos, Twitter leads the field of written news and the publication of links, while news content is still Snapchat's expertise. Yes. I know. You may also be surprised by this fact. The decision would be the direct responsibility of Twitter to a phenomenon that has become clear in recent months: in the case of news related to shootings or natural disasters, the rawest and transparent images of what happens are usually transmitted first through Snapchat and not on Twitter.
However, if the update is approved, it would be a gigantic change in the dynamics of the Twitter user, because for the first time the platform opens a space "camera-first"; that is, in which the user is urged to take videos and photos directly from the app, unlike the classic Twitter format of sharing text messages of a limited number of characters. Changing the emphasis of text to video and photos also has the potential to create a new advertising market for Twitter, with advertisers who have already bet on positioning their brands in the Stories of Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. It would be interesting though to know the opinion of Twitter users.
The fierce competition among the social networks may cause that these lose their essence in search of popularity, and of course, money. What is true, is that Snapchat is the new social phenomenon conquering the youngest. Its success has reached a point where Facebook tried to buy it for 3 billion and still failed. Through the app, more than 400 million photos a day (more than Facebook) can be sent, and it is only necessary to see the repercussion that it has generated worldwide (and that also occurs in Spain and in Latin countries) since it began its journey in September 2011.