Snapchat’s videos can now be shared outside the app

After years of seeing its novel ideas ripped from its app by Facebook, Snap still has the moxie to develop new features for Snapchat. And its latest one could be its best yet.

Some Snapchat Stories can now be shared with other internet users, even if they don’t have a Snapchat account.

This can be done using a share link generated in-app, and can be passed around other messaging platforms, internet forums, and other social networks with ease.

Once clicked, the link takes visitors to an embedded player on Snapchat’s web portal, where the clip can be viewed.

And like Twitter and Facebook’s posts, these little Story clips can be embedded on websites.

(Expect news outlets to be using these more often within their celebrity baby announcement blogs.)

For a company that enjoys keeping its user generated content within its app’s walls, it’s a big step for Snap.

It not only goes some way to address Snapchat’s biggest issue — increasing reach beyond its 178-million users — but it creates a possible replacement for much missed app, Vine.

After Twitter bought and culled the mini video sharing app in early 2017, there have been scant replacements. But this feature may go some way to filling thie void.

The change also comes after the app’s redesigned UI came under pressure from users. Some users actually labelled the redesign “disgusting”.

There is a bit of a catch, and it’s a big one: this feature isn’t available for all Stories, only for those that the company deems fit.

There’s no word on whether it plans to extend the feature to all Stories in the future, but it really, really should.

H/T: ReCode