Snap (SNAP 0.33%), the maker of the disappearing messaging app Snapchat, launched App Stories on Tuesday, a new tool that enables its Stories feature to show up in third-party apps.
Launched in 2013, Stories is one of Snap's most popular features. Facebook's (FB +0.83%) Instagram cloned Stories in 2016, and Twitter (TWTR +0.00%) recently launched Fleets, which are disappearing Tweets.
IMAGE SOURCE: Snap.
Snap Stories enables users to post videos and photographs that disappear in 24 hours. With App Stories, users will be able to post their disappearing videos and photos to other apps, which will expand the number of people that can view content made on Snapchat.
In their initial phase, App Stories will be available on social, video, and dating apps Triller, Squad, Hily, and Octi. Snap expects to add more apps in the coming months. Snap teased App Stories about a year ago at the company's Partner Summit. At the time, Snap said App Stories would appear on Tinder and Houseparty, two popular apps.
By launching App Stories, Snap is aiming to extend the number of people who can view its content and potentially become Snap customers. Snap has been enjoying double-digit growth during 2019 and is seeing an uptick in usage amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to chip away at Facebook and Alphabet's (GOOG 0.51%) (GOOGL 0.31%) Google advertising dominance Snap has to continue to grow its user base. Enabling third-party apps to feature Snapchat content may not make it more money in the beginning, but it could expand its reach, which is important to advertisers.
