Snapchat have today improved their on-demand geofilters by building an easier to use front end on the website that uses templates. These on-demand geofilters were introduced six months ago as a means of encouraging Snapchat users to personalize their stories by using paid-for filters that are custom designed and set to run for a period of time. These geofilters are chargeable; with a base price of $5 and going up from there depending on how much time a user wants for the geofilter. However, one weakness of the service as launched back in February is that users needed some technical knowledge in order to use the service. Designers need to create a geofilter that meets the size guidelines on the website and is correctly mapped to where the filter is applied. Snapchat’s announcement and service upgrade makes it much easier for customers to get these on-demand geofilters.
The website’s interface has been improved with the addition of a number of templates. Upon using a template, customers need only pick a theme, design and text color, and style. This makes the system much neater and streamlined for customers who do not necessarily want to, or are able, to fine tune a Snapchat geofilter. And by making the custom geofilters much easier to use, Snapchat are sure to encourage more users to try them out for special occasions such as birthdays, weddings, and more. In addition to the improvements to the Snapchat website, the company has also announced an update to the mobile application. This update incorporates various ways to customize the fonts used for captions, with users being able to italicize their fonts or present them with bold lettering. Users can even add an underline if they so choose. In addition to this big captions can be animated and placed over the tops of images, and to access this feature users simply need to press and hold to pin a big caption over a video Snapchat. More simplicity comes in the way of an easier method for adding a lense by tapping on a face. The final improvement to the Snapchat application is to allow public stories to be previewed on the Stories page without adding somebody as a friend.
Today’s improvements highlight that Snapchat is a flexible and adaptive business. As a social media business, Snapchat is still relatively new. It has used this newness to shake up the service a few times and to rapidly roll out new features, many of which have been bought in from acquired third party companies. Whilst it’s true that Snapchat has grown quickly because the company offers a core product that customers want to use, the business has evolved and improved the core picture messaging service. After introducing a feature, Snapchat have monitored and refined it to better serve its regular user base.