Snapchat makes Stories easier to share. Just not yours

Stories, which let people string together photos and videos, will be sharable outside Snapchat as part of a redesign, but only officially produced ones.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter

Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.

Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials

Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)

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Joan E. Solsman

Jan. 23, 2018 6:00 a.m. PT

2 min read

Snapchat Stories are branching out, hoping to bring more people in.

Stories, the app feature that lets people and publishers string together photos and video clips that eventually disappear, will be easier to share outside the Snapchat app, as part of a redesign unveiled Tuesday.

The one big caveat: My Story, the compilation that you as an individual user can make yourself, isn't included (unless you're a big-time verified user).

Initially, users who press and hold tiles in Snapchat's Discover section -- where Snap and professional media companies create and curate bits of media -- will be able to share those Official Stories, as well as Our Stories and Search Stories. Official Stories are those made by verified accounts, Our Stories show a crowdsourced group of users' Snapchats based around an event, and Search Stories are the ones you find by searching keywords.

Although Snap has faced a parade of bad news since it became a public company last year, the Stories feature has been one of its hits. The feature was so popular that Facebook blatantly copied it, also to great success. About a month after Snap went public, Facebook said that Instagram Stories, an almost exact copy of Snapchat Stories, was being used by 200 million people -- more than the entirety of Snapchat users.

The new sharing feature, which is available on both Android and iOS devices, is aimed at giving more people a window into Snapchat, in the hope they'll become users too.

The redesign will begin rolling out Tuesday in countries including Australia and Canada, and it will continue to expand to other places over the next few weeks.

To share a Story outside of Snapchat, you press and hold the Story tile in Discover and choose "Share Story" from the options that pop up. Our Stories and Search Stories will be available outside of Snapchat for 30 days, and Official Stories for only 24 hours.

They can be sent directly by text or email, and shared on other platforms, which Snap didn't specify. You can also copy the link.

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