Snapchat today unveiled a seismic new feature titled Memories that moves the platform away from its origins as a means of capturing and sharing fleeting moments. Memories, which can be accessed by swiping up from Snapchat’s home camera screen, is a place where users can save old Snaps and Stories. (While users were previously able to save Snaps and Stories to their smartphone camera rolls, now they can be saved on Snapchat’s servers and edited to create and share new Stories and Snaps.)
“You can use Memories to create new Stories from Snaps you’ve taken, or even combine different Stories into a longer narrative,” Snapchat explained in a blog post announcing the new feature, which it says will roll out over the next month. “If you post a Snap you took more than a day ago to your Story, it will appear with a frame around it so that everyone knows it’s from the past.”
Memories will be searchable via keywords, and the company is also adding a ‘My Eyes Only’ section that’s password protected and presumably prevents parents and friends from stumbling across sensitive content.
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Additionally, users will be able to import images and videos from their camera rolls into Memories and use them to create Snaps, according to BuzzFeed. (While users were previously able to send existing images and videos privately via Snapchat, this is the first time that images and videos captured outside of the app will be able to be posted to users’ Stories). Snapchat won’t back up any content that exists on users’ camera rolls, the company said, except for content that users import into Memories.
Check out a video from Snapchat showcasing the update in action below:
