Everything You Need To Know About The New Snapchat Update

Another month, another new feature on Snapchat. In March, Snapchat upped its game in search engine optimization by launching its new search feature. This opened up opportunities for both users and marketers as users were able to search for topics ranging from “puppies” to local locations such as “Manhattan Beach” and marketers are able to put more products in front of the hard-to-reach 18-24 age group. See our review of it here. In April, Snapchat launched their new virtual reality lenses, which they termed “world lenses”. These 3D filters are even more interactive than the original Snapchat filters, bringing the environment to life. Recently, Snapchat blessed us with yet another new update, introducing not one but four new features.

Infinity Snaps – In Snapchat’s new update, Snaps are no longer limited to 10 seconds. If you are ever frustrated from not being able to watch a snap and read the caption, this is good news. With the new infinity option under the timer, viewers can watch the snap for as long as they wish – until they manually skip to the next snap or close the app entirely.

Business Location Geofilters – With the new update, you can now tag nearby locations in your snaps. Tap the name of the location to switch between other businesses. This is somewhat mimicking Instagram’s tagged location feature, which allows your friends to click and see where you are. So far, the locations that are available on Snapchat’s business geofilters are limited to restaurants and the filters can only be applied immediately after you take the photo, not for uploads.

Loop Tool – With the new loop tool, you can loop your videos on repeat. This feature is somewhat comparable to Instagram’s Boomerang function, but without the reverse video. Use this feature to capture funny moments with your friends or cute moments of your pup so you can watch it on repeat forever. However, when you save the video, the loop function does not save so you just have a single loop of your clip.

Magic Eraser Tool – Snapchat’s new magic eraser tool can be found under the scissor category. This tool mimics Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush. It essentially blends in an imperfection by sampling the surrounding area to fill in the selected area. It works best if you are fixing a small shadow or blemish, and is more difficult when you select a larger area. See our example below, where we removed an entire beer bottle from a snap. After selecting the eraser tool under the scissor, color over the selected area you want to remove with your finger, wait for Snapchat to do its magic, and ta-da! As you can see, it does not work as well for removing larger objects, but is still pretty cool for a new function.