Snapchat has rolled out a brand-new feature on Tuesday: Group Messaging.
Now, Snapchat users can participate in group messaging with up to fifteen of his/her closest friends. The chat companions are displayed at the bottom of the interface. Users can share Snaps in the group like normal Snapchat messages, which means that the content is not saved for posterity and is deleted after 24 hours. Tapping a participant's name at the bottom also starts a private Quick Chat with the group member.
The popular social media application is loaded with a host of incredible features that include circulating 10-second selfies among friends, numerous location-based filters, titles, stickers, and highlighter colors. Besides all that, users can share public stories comprised of chronological snaps and indulge in person-to-person private messaging.
In addition to the new group messaging feature, a new Scissor tool is being launched as part of the new update that lets one "snip" a part of a Snap to produce a sticker which is later on added to Snapchat's sticker drawer. Artistic layers can be added to Snaps using the Paintbrush effect and music can be identified within the Snapchat app using Shazam, which is now tightly integrated with Snapchat's camera. The feature, launching on iOS first, will come to Android in a few weeks.
Snapchat, launched in 2012, as a means to exchange private, self-destructing messages between friends, has grown today into a veritable juggernaut. Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, recently launched Spectacles, the $130 augmented reality sunglasses that capture 10-seconds Snaps with a built-in camera. The app boasts of 150 million active daily users, almost half of whom live in the US.
The company also acquired Los Angeles, California-based company Vurb, a search and recommendation app, for $110 million in August, and purchased Bitstrips, the startup behind personalized comic strip service Bitmoji, for $100 million in March.
The updated Snapchat app is now available on the App Store for iOS and Google Play Store for Android.