Snapchat moving beyond self-destructing messages with Stories
The main hook of Snapchat so far has been that the picture messages you send will self-destruct after a certain amount of time (usually no more than 10 seconds). The app has gained a lot of popularity with those who want to share pictures, but don't want to worry about those pictures ending up floating around the web, usually the bulk of use would be in the realm of drunken nights or sexting. But, Snapchat wants to move beyond that reputation with a new feature called Stories.
The idea behind Stories is to allow you to string together multiple snaps to form... well, a story of course. And, unlike normal Snapchats, Stories will survive for a full 24 hours, so you can continue to add pictures to the story, and your friends can see the tale unfold as you progress through. The 24 hour clock is important because, as Snapchat says, "Your Story never ends and it’s always changing. The end of your Story today is the beginning of your Story tomorrow."
Stories will make it for an easy way to allow your friends to quickly catch up on what you've been doing for the past day. This is a major shift for Snapchat, because now instead of just being a messaging platform, it is moving into competition with services like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+. But, the 24-hour time limit could be the make-or-break feature, because it will either lead to Snapchat being stickier (can't miss anything!) or Stories failing (it's not that important...)
The update for both iOS and Android is live right now if you want to give it a shot.
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