Snapchat to allow brands to share links with their customers

Snapchat has just announced that it will become useful to brands, influencers and publishers, for the first time allowing link sharing as part of its stories feature.

Formerly avoiding the tag of “social media”, Snapchat is best known for its image and video sharing, which unless badged as a “story” disappears after no more than 10 seconds.

The network is however having to adapt as competitors imitate its platform. This means that brands or sponsored riders using the platform (as many in the bike business do) will now be able to direct consumers to product listings or homepages.

The announcement came in tandem with news that the app would introduce a maps feature that allows people to geolocate other users, which might be useful for finding friends on the trial, but is primarily just a bit creepy.