Snapchat Releases Search Function, Looking For Better User Engagement

Snapchat would launch a new search option on Friday to make the content created by the users accessible. Now, this has opened up the huge contents that the site has grabbed from its users. Till now, the users only saw Stories from other users they follow within the app.

 It has managed to get hold of contents from over 158 million users who have contributed to the Stories feature. The feature was launched way back in 2013. Interestingly, the company is using the latest machine learning techniques to evaluate the captions, visual elements, time, texts and more for creating new stories through those Snaps.

"We've built a new way to understand what's happening in Snaps that are submitted to Our Story, and to create new Stories using advanced machine learning. The results have been amazing: you can search over 1 million unique Stories on Snapchat," Snapchat mentioned in a blog post CNBC reported. The users would be able to view relevant contents such as a scene at a nearby bar, a local basketball match and more.

Interestingly, this is the first major change that the Snapchat app has undergone after the parent company, Snap Inc. went public in March. Right after going public, the app has come under public scrutiny of the users as well as revenue members. According to The Australian, it is the one to many communication that Snap pushes with the Stories feature is the main reason for spending time on the app claimed Cowen & Co. analyst John Blackledge.

Just allowing the search option within Snapchat, would allow the users to spend more time in the app. The new search tool that would release on Friday would display content that users submit to Our Story on Snapchat. Search has been an important tool in other social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and more. The social site would be joining the bandwagon shortly.