The Holiday season is upon us, and calls to friends and family will be happening, as well as in-person gatherings. Some people will decide to make those calls over video, and even over Snapchat. For those using Snapchat to connect with loved ones this Holiday season, it will be possible to chat with more than one person thanks to Snapchat Groups. The new feature is rolling out right now, and allows up to 16 people to join in the same chat on the social app. The same update that brings Snapchat Groups also introduces some new creative tools to use in editing your Holiday Snaps.
The new Groups feature, for obvious reasons, does not put 15 other people’s Snapchat camera feeds on your screen at once. Instead, it sends Snaps to the entire group, including video Snaps. Snaps sent to a group disappear from the group after 24 hours, just like any other Snap. Groups don’t automatically dismiss when they’re empty, however, so you’ll need to clean out your Group entries yourself every now and then. When you’re in a Group, you can simply tap on somebody’s name to start a one on one chat, then swipe back over to the group any time you wish. For now, split-screen, real-time group chat is unavailable.
The new update’s creative tools include Scissors, and Paintbrush. The Scissors tool is pretty simple; it allows you to snip out a part of a Snap that you’re in the process of creating, and use it as a sticker. This means that real world objects and even people’s faces are now fair game for use as stickers. The press release regarding the update did not say whether these stickers can be shared for use by other users. The new Paintbrush tool is exactly what it sounds like, and can be used to edit Snaps that are stored in a user’s Memories. The tool makes it easy to turn old Snaps into works of art, or accentuate special Memories to emphasize what you see fit. The updated features should be rolling out to all users on all platforms as of this writing, so if you can’t see the new features, try updating or uninstalling and reinstalling the app.