New Snapchat Feature Fuses Multiple Apps Into One

October 17, 2017

Mobile

Social Media

Snapchat

Fun


As if your online app-worlds haven’t collided enough already, Snapchat just released a new feature on Tuesday called Context Cards. Essentially, if your friend sends you a snap with a Geofilter of themselves partying it up at a bar in Boston (or, if she posts a picture to a public ‘Our Story’ feed), and you want to join, you can swipe up on the picture for additional interactive context, including TripAdvisor reviews, the address and hours of operation, other snaps from the same location (if you don’t necessarily trust your friend’s judgement), and even the chance to order an Uber or make a dinner reservation, straight from Snapchat.

While this gives you more information about locations, it’s also an exciting marketing tactic for Snapchat. Context Cards gives Snapchat the opportunity to form partnerships with companies such as Foursquare, OpenTable and Resy, and Uber and Lyft. This means that you can scroll up on that video of a friend raging at a nightclub in Boston and order an Uber directly from the Snapchat app; or, make a reservation using OpenTable after your cousin posts that delicious-looking picture of his pancakes.

When my friend posts a video of herself at Loretta’s, I can scroll up to see info about Loretta’s–easy!

Snapchat plans on continuing to grow its list of partners in the future. This feature arrives at a good time, too; recently, Snapchat has faced some pretty tough competition with Instagram’s and Facebook’s Stories Features; Context Cards allows users to take more actions within the app, hopefully increasing Snapchat’s unique appeal.

Along with giving users more reason to use Snapchat over Instagram and Facebook, the partnerships will also provide additional revenue for Snapchat, as well as marketing opportunities for venues down the line.

Snapchat’s team said Tuesday: “With Context Cards, Snaps have become the visual starting point for learning more about the world, empowering our community to get more information about anything that catches their eye.”

One last thing… My advice? Scroll through your Snapchat contacts and make sure you’ve blocked any potential stalkers–Context Cards definitely seems like a cool addition if used properly, but I think we can all think of some horror stories if the wrong people can “immediately order an Uber” to our current location…

Check out our other posts about Snapchat.