Snap Inc is considering some principle changes to its Snapchat app. The app is known for its disappearing photo and videos, although with the changes Snapchat might make public posts longer lasting or even permanent, people familiar to the matter said.
The company is also considering revealing the identities of Snapchat users who make public posts, a person familiar to the matter said. These changes, when applied, will make drastically change the basic philosophy of the social media platform. However, Snap Inc is looking forward to luring in more customers by making the content shared publicly via the “Our Story” section more available outside Snapchat.
The company is also expected to create a new revenue source as Snap Inc is losing money given its shrinking user base and fleeing executives.
Launched in 2011, Snapchat gained popularity among teenagers and millennials because of its privacy options and with the changes the company might receive some backlash. Not to forget, its rival Facebook recently received criticism for its involvement in users data privacy breach.
Snapchat is carefully considering the privacy, legal and technical ramifications of revealing user identities on public posts, said the person familiar with the plan.
Only the photos and videos shared on “Our Story”—which shares snaps publicly to a wider audience and not just a user’s friends, would be affected and users will still have the option of deleting those stories, said the person.
Snapchat has already extended the lifespan of public stories and extending the timeline even further will mark a departure of Snapchat from its hallmark feature.
Snap Inc is considering these changes under the influence of the feedback from its four partnerships with news discovery platforms that help media companies spot, analyze and republish public breaking news content on Snapchat, sources said.
The news partnership is a part of Snapchat’s “Stories Everywhere” initiative, which was launched last year in order to push Snapchat’s contents to other platforms.
Snap announced the partnerships last year and will sign four more deals in the near future, said the person familiar with Snap’s plans.
Initially, public posts would disappear after 30 days but now remain for over 90 days, according to Snap’s support website.
Some partners have said that the disappearing and anonymous nature of public stories makes them difficult to work with, the sources said.
Some news organizations will not include Snapchat’s videos in their article because the videos eventually disappear while others will not use them because of the credibility issues of the video posted by an anonymous Snapchat user.
One source familiar with the news partnership said Snap is already talking with one partner about making public posts last even longer and to make some content from celebrities permanent.
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