Earlier this month, Snapchat introduced its new Memories feature, which allows users to save snaps and stories for future review and use. For a social platform that became popular for spontaneous, non-curated experiences, this move is surprising, with critics going so far as to claim that the change has now ?ruined? Snapchat.
Speculation has pegged the decision as anything from a move into Facebook?s territory to an attempt to get more mileage from sponsored content. However, the more likely motivation is a basic recognition of the fundamental shift in the way we use smartphones, engage with content and communicate.
Visual content is on the rise
To understand what?s going on, we first need to look at the explosive growth of digital photography. Last year, more than 1 trillion photos were taken across phones and other devices. Social networks have played a huge role in encouraging that volume. A recent report from Deloitte showed that there were more than 2,000 photo-sharing applications available by the end of 2015. Other findings show that social site users upload nearly 2 billion images per day onto social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, WhatsApp and Snapchat. Cisco Systems analysts predict that 80 percent of global consumer internet consumption will be video content in 2019, and as recently as one month ago, Facebook?s Nicola Mendelsohn even intimated that text posts are declining on the platform in favor of video and images.
When internet use first beca...