Snapchat Debuts Custom Stories

Heading away with friends this Memorial Day weekend? Snapchat has a new feature that tin can help your crew document all the fun.

The imperceptible messaging app on Tuesday introduced custom stories, a feature that lets you collaborate with friends on collections of photos and videos centered around a big result or a specific location. Snapchat said the new feature is "perfect for a trip, a birthday political party, or a new baby story simply for the family."

To create a new custom story, just snap something like you normally would; when you lot reach the Stories screen you'll see a blue icon in the top right corner that says "Create Story." Tap that, give your story a title (like "Girls Trip"), and then select who can add together to it and who can view information technology. Yous tin also opt to geofence your custom story to a specific location. If nobody has contributed to the story in 24 hours, information technology'll disappear.

For a peek at how custom stories work, check out the video below.

If recent history is any indication, it won't exist long before rival social network Instagram debuts its ain version of custom stories. Instagram and its parent visitor Facebook have been ruthless and unapologetic almost copying Snapchat's features as of late. Just last week, Instagram rolled out Snapchat-like Confront Filters, including hirsuite koala ears, math equations swirling around your head, and an water ice crown.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom seems to have no trouble copying his rival's ideas.

"Innovation happens in the Valley, and people invent formats, and that's great," he said during an interview last twelvemonth. "And then what you see is those formats proliferate. Then @ usernames were invented on Twitter. Hashtags were invented on Twitter. Instagram has those. Filtered photos were not invented on Instagram."

Virtually Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's skillful on fettle and smart home products. Teaching yoga for virtually 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela too tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to proper name a few.