As Snapchat continues to take on Instagram and TikTok, the company announced on Thursday that it’s introducing a suite of new tools and features to make it easier for creators to create and share content on its platform. The social network is launching a “Timeline Editor” feature, a new way to create videos from saved Memories, the ability to auto-save Stories to profiles, and more.
Snapchat says the new Timeline Editor will give creators a more intuitive way to edit videos directly on the platform. The Timeline Editor lets you view your video in a chronological layout, so it’s easy to trim, move, or rearrange clips. Once your sequence is set, you can add Lenses, add music from the Sounds library, and use other creative tools. The tool could get rid of the need for users to edit simple videos on third-party editing platforms, such as CapCut, before posting them on Snapchat.
Creators will also get access to a new “Create a Video” template that lets them select a few Memories, choose a song from Snapchat’s Sounds library, and pick their favorite template to generate a custom compilation video. The feature is rolling out globally on iOS.
Users will also soon be able to automatically save their public Stories directly to their profile to allow people to revisit the content. Snapchat says the feature enables creators to build a lasting collection of their best memories and keep their content alive. Of course, this feature sort of defeats the purpose of the ephemeral element behind Stories, but it could be useful for people who want to preserve their Stories.
In addition, Snapchat is giving creators access to more insights into how their content is performing in order to allow them to better optimize their posts.
Creators will be able to see the number of viewers who watched their public content for at least 12 days over the last month, giving them a better idea of how many returning viewers they have. They’ll also be able to see which of their Spotlight posts and public Stories received the most views in the past 28 days, along with their total view time across all content.
Plus, creators will get insight into their traffic sources, as they’ll see views based on the source, which could include the Discover For You page, Following, Spotlight, Search, Chat, and Profile. Last, they’ll see the average amount of time users spent watching their Spotlight posts, along with the average percent of their Spotlight posts that users finished watching.
