Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Snapchat is Growing Up

Snapchat was once the new kid on the block, putting pressure on big social media rivals such as Facebook and Instagram.  However, the company's rise in popularity has forced it to go head-to-head with all the largest social media platforms and compete for the one thing everyone is gunning for:  attention on mobile phones.

Snapchat has been expanding its services to match those of its competitors.  This week, the company released 6 new features to makes its app more relevant, including allowing people to make phone calls, send audio messages and send video messages.  Snapchat also now providdes the ability to conduct video calls like a private livestream.

These new capability launches follow Snapchat's decision two years ago to let people replay videos.  These decisions have been made in an attempt to keep people within their ecosystem longer.  Competitors such as Instagram and Facebook are expanding their services offers with the same intent.  For example, Instagram just announced that videos on its platform can now be up to 60 seconds in length.

Who will win the ultimate fight for users' attention?

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