06 Apr Snapchat Chat 2.0 Opens up New Possibilities
As an application with more than 100 million daily active users, revamping your chat platform is a pretty big deal. Luckily, users are loving what Snapchat is referring to as Chat 2.0 as it gives a much wider range of ways to communicate with other users. Users now have the ability to send both video and audio notes, stickers, video call, and even more. In a blog post by Snapchat, they stated, “When we first launched Chat, our goal was to emulate the best parts of face-to-face conversation. Chat 1.0 was all about the joys of being here — when most apps told you when your friend was typing, Chat let you know that your friend was listening. Two years later, we’ve learned a ton about how people talk, but our goal remains unchanged.”
Chat 2.0 New Features
Snapchat is an interestingly integrated platform not only by having added features to compete with other messaging applications, but also in the sense that they have figured out how to combine all the ways that people want to communicate. Users (on top of all the features previously available through Snapchat) now have the capability of having video and audio calls as well as the ability to toggle between them, sending more than 200 stickers, recording audio and video notes, auto advancing Snapchat Stories, sending multiple images at a time, and even sending images in the middle of a call. One of the best parts? This means brands now have these capabilities as well.
Updated Privacy Policy
On top of Snapchat’s updates, their new Privacy Policy clarifies that Snapchat only temporarily saves snaps submitted to Live Stories and deletes everything else. In addition to this, they also added two very important 
words to part of their “How We Use Information” section, stating what they personalize and what content they show you: including ads. This messaging gives an indication that the application may soon be prepared for bigger ad budgets, as well as the ability to send them specifically based on the intended audience.
New Possibilities on the Horizon
While details about this two word addition are up in the air, brands should still make use of the current update here and now. The additions in Chat 2.0 give brands the ability to be involved more personally, and in a more meaningful way. It’s an opportunity to engage their audiences and have enhanced conversations with relevant information and timely responses. Take customer service for example, brands will still have to take their approach into consideration, but the ability to have live interactions is exciting. Being able to instantly chat with one of your favorite brands if you have a question about product use or troubleshooting is just the beginning of a new way to socially interact between brand and consumer, and as brands are trying to figure out the best ways to use these new features to their advantage, the potential is endless.
