Snapchat has updated its Custom Stories feature to allow more people to participate. While the original version of the feature only gives you a way to add friends to view and contribute to your Stories, the new version called Shared Stories allows the friends you add to add their own contacts. Say you’re cooking and want your friends to add their cooking Stories, too — just add them to the group, so they can add more people, as well. Snap says that makes it easier “for the whole soccer team, camp squad, or group of new coworkers to get in on the fun.”
Like regular Stories, shared ones will only be visible for 24 hours before disappearing, but it doesn’t have a chat component, probably because it’s assumed that not all participants would know each other. The app will also use automatic language detection and other review tools to monitor additions and make sure they’re all safe. Finally, you will get a notification if you’ve joined a Shared Story with someone you’ve blocked. That gives you the chance to leave the Story if you’re not comfortable sharing a part of your life with those users.
Snapchat has released and promised a number of other new features over the past couple of months, likely in an effort to get people to use the app more in face of slowing revenue growth. In April, it introduced a new suite of creator-friendly editing tools called “director mode” that will help you produce more polished content. It also introduced an ASL alphabet lens that you can use to learn the ASL alphabet and released the capability to share YouTube videos directly on the platform.