Snapchat will now allow users to share 'Stories' outside the app: Here's how!

Image messaging and multimedia mobile application Snapchat on Wednesday announced that the platform will now let its userbase to share some public 'Stories' via links. "Stories eligible for sharing right now include those Official Stories and Our Stories found in the Discover tab, as well as Search Stories," TechCrunch reported.

However, according to the company, the type of 'Stories' that one can share will expand over time. The aim is to allow users to share content from within the app to let people, who don't use the platform, know what it can do.

This feature will be going live to users running the redesigned Snapchat app, which also includes test markets like Australia and Canada. It will become available for iOS and Android over the next few weeks.

Snapchat, which has been reluctant to impose ads onto its users, may now force users to view ads for three seconds before skipping them. At the moment, Snapchat’s current video ads are easily dismissed with a tap of the screen. However, one of the company’s top advertisers has said that it sees “average view times on ads that barely reach a second.”

According to a report by AdAge, Snapchat's ad sales team is applying pressure on internal executives to approve the new format so the service can appease brands and attract more ad dollars, this advertiser says. A publishing partner also confirmed there have been talks with Snapchat about trying the three-second skippable ads.

An advertiser from a brand that works closely with the messaging service said, “Advertisers are not spending as much as they have previously with Snapchat. They have to do something that draws more interest from advertisers, and they are getting more aggressive to address the market's needs.”

The report pointed out the Media Rating Council has determined two seconds is the minimum time needed for a video ad to be considered “viewable,” and if Snapchat can force more three-second views it would go a long way to addressing viewability concerns. For now, it is unknown whether Snapchat will implement this three-second ad limit.

Snapchat may provide the perfect medium for maintaining relationships with close friends, without the pressure to present oneself in extraordinary form, say scientists who delved into why people use the addictive social platform which allows short, quick posts. Due to its brevity, Snapchat could be the best form of communication in a world where people struggle with a seemingly diminishing attention span.

With inputs from ANI