Will Snapchat Memories Change the App as We Know It?

When Snapchat first exploded onto the social media scene in 2011, it was the teen app that bewildered older generations. Snaps – the photos and videos captured in the app – disappeared in a puff of digital smoke a few seconds after being opened. The whole point was sharing raw, unpolished, ephemeral moments with close friends.

But in July 2016, Snapchat took a sharp turn away from its disappearing message origins with the launch of Memories, a feature that lets users save snaps and stories to a private in-app archive. This was a seismic shift for a platform built on fleeting content, and raised existential questions about Snapchat‘s identity and future direction.

In this post, we‘ll dive deep into what exactly Memories and the My Eyes Only section are, why this change matters, and what it means for both casual Snapchatters and brands using the app. Plus, get expert tips on making the most of these features.

The Basics: What Are Snapchat Memories and My Eyes Only?

Memories is Snapchat‘s answer to your phone‘s camera roll – it‘s a personal collection of saved snaps and stories that you can organize, edit, search through, and even reshare later.

Here‘s how it works:

• Any photo or video you capture in Snapchat can be saved to Memories with a single tap of the "Save" icon.
• Saved snaps get organized into a few default tabs within Memories:
  • Snaps: Individual saved photos/videos
  • Stories: Saved stories (groups of snaps posted over 24 hours)
  • Camera Roll: Your phone‘s camera roll, imported into Snapchat
  • My Eyes Only: An extra-private section protected by a PIN code
• You can search through Memories by date, location, caption, stickers, or even recognized objects and scenes (try searching "dog", "sunset", "beach", etc.)
• Edit saved snaps by trimming videos, adding new stickers/captions, or splicing multiple snaps together into a longer narrative
• Re-share saved snaps or combine them into a new story to post publicly or send to individual friends

The My Eyes Only section adds an additional layer of privacy, encrypting selected snaps and stories behind a secret PIN code. Even if someone gets into your phone and your Snapchat app, they still won‘t be able to see your My Eyes Only content without that PIN.

Why Memories Is Such a Big Deal

For a platform that made its name with disappearing messages, letting people save those messages indefinitely is a pretty radical change. It cuts against the very thing that made Snapchat unique in the first place.

Back in 2011, Snapchat‘s early adopters were mostly teenagers and college students who flocked to the app for the freedom to be goofy, unfiltered, and in-the-moment without worrying about their content living forever online like it does on Facebook. Ephemerality was Snapchat‘s special sauce.

But as Snapchat matured, that sauce started to lose its kick. The company faced two major challenges:

1. Growth was slowing. After a meteoric first few years, Snapchat‘s user growth started cooling off circa 2016:

Year	Snapchat DAUs (Millions)	YoY Growth
2014	50	900%
2015	110	120%
2016	158	44%
2017	187	18%

Source: Snap Inc. SEC Filings

To keep growing, Snapchat needed to appeal to a broader audience beyond its young millennial/Gen Z core. But many older users just didn‘t "get" the disappearing content model. They found Snapchat confusing and inaccessible.

2. Competition was heating up. Rivals like Instagram were shamelessly copying Snapchat‘s most popular features, like Stories. To defend its turf, Snapchat needed to innovate and differentiate itself. Relying solely on ephemerality was no longer enough of a moat.

Memories aimed to solve both of these problems by making Snapchat more accessible and valuable to a wider range of users:

• Ease of use: Memories gave Snapchat a familiar, intuitive camera-roll-style interface for people who don‘t understand the appeal of disappearing messages.
• Deeper engagement: Letting people preserve their favorite moments encourages them to see Snapchat as more than just a silly novelty, but as a true utility for documenting their lives. The more content they build up in Memories, the more valuable Snapchat becomes to them over time.
• New creative possibilities: With the ability to save, search, edit and remix past snaps, users can tell richer ongoing stories that weren‘t possible before. Imagine splicing together snaps from multiple beach days into an "Ultimate Summer" story at the end of the season.
• Backdoor content uploads: Memories‘ Camera Roll feature made it easy to share pre-produced content on Snapchat for the first time. Users and brands could now upload polished videos from other cameras or editing software, blurring the line between Snapchat‘s raw in-the-moment aesthetic and the curated perfection of Instagram.

So while Memories may have been a 180 from Snapchat‘s original vision, it was a necessary pivot to keep growing and fend off copycats. The app could still hang onto ephemerality as a feature, but it would no longer define Snapchat as a whole.

Memories In Action: Creative Use Cases

Since launching, Memories has opened up a range of new ways for both regular users and brands to engage with Snapchat. Here are a few examples:

Throwback Thursdays

One of the most popular Memories use cases is resharing old snaps on Thursdays for the classic #TBT. Individual users love digging up funny or nostalgic saved snaps to share with friends. Brands participate too – the NBA, for example, often resurfaces iconic moments from past games in their Memories.

Serialized Stories

Some users and brands craft ongoing narratives by combining saved snaps into a linear story over time. For instance:

• A couple could document their home renovation journey, adding a few new snaps to their Memories story each week to capture the progress.
• A blogger could create a "Day in the Life" story template in Memories, then fill in new daily snaps to give their followers a behind-the-scenes look at their routine.
• A restaurant could save its daily specials to a Memories story, allowing customers to look back and see what was served on any given day.

Memories Takeovers

Influencer takeovers – where a creator temporarily "takes over" a brand‘s social media account – have been a staple tactic on Snapchat for years. Memories adds a twist, enabling the brand to save and resurface the best snaps from the takeover to showcase later or even incorporate into future campaigns.

Collaborative Stories

Using the Camera Roll upload, multiple people can contribute snaps and videos to a shared story in Memories, even if some of that content originated outside of Snapchat. Imagine:

• A sorority collecting snaps from all its members into a story recapping a charity fundraising event
• A music festival stitching together fan-submitted videos into an official aftermovie saved in Memories
• A wedding party gathering guests‘ snaps and iPhone clips into a crowdsourced wedding album in Memories

These are just a few thought-starters, but the creative possibilities are endless. Memories has made Snapchat infinitely more flexible for both everyday users and brands.

The Future of Snapchat

Snapchat purists may decry Memories as a betrayal of the app‘s original ephemeral ethos, but it‘s hard to deny that this move toward permanence has expanded Snapchat‘s potential and made it more competitive with rival platforms.

Looking ahead, we can expect Snapchat to continue walking the line between disappearing fun and lasting value:

• The core, default Snapchat experience will likely keep ephemerality at its heart to preserve the app‘s unique vibe
• At the same time, Snapchat will keep looking for ways to selectively introduce more permanence, searchability, and viral potential to keep pace with sleek, algorithm-driven rivals like TikTok
• Memories itself will continue to get more sophisticated, perhaps with expanded search capabilities, auto-generated compilations, and more granular privacy controls
• We may see Snapchat experiment with other types of long-term public content, perhaps akin to TikTok‘s Duets or Instagram‘s Guides

Balancing those two competing priorities – the raw spontaneity of ephemerality and the engagement depth of permanence – will be key to Snapchat‘s long-term success. No matter what, it‘s clear that the days of Snapchat as a purely ephemeral app are long gone.

Expert Tips for Using Snapchat Memories & My Eyes Only

Whether you‘re a power user or a brand, here are some tips to get the most out of Snapchat‘s more permanent side:

1. Save with Intention

Just because you can save every snap doesn‘t mean you should. Be thoughtful about what memories you want to preserve. Otherwise you‘ll end up with a bloated, disorganized archive. Focus on saving:

• Your absolute favorite moments
• Snaps you might want to reshare later
• Snaps that could be useful for a specific story or campaign

2. Organize with the Tabs

Use Memories‘ built-in tabs (Snaps, Stories, Camera Roll) to keep your saved content neatly sorted by type. For an extra level of organization, use the "My" tab to create and label your own custom tags like "Summer Vacation" or "Funny".

3. Search Smart

Don‘t forget about Memories‘ powerful search capabilities. Search your archive by:

• Date / Year
• Place
• Caption keywords
• Stickers or Emojis
• General objects and scenes

Playing around with searches is a great way to rediscover forgotten gems in your Memories.

4. Knit Snaps into Stories

One of the coolest parts of Memories is the ability to combine multiple saved snaps and videos into montages or narratives. A few ideas:

• Recap an event or trip by threading together the best saved moments
• Splice together recurring snaps (like coffee time) into a themed compilation
• Create a flashback story for a friend‘s birthday or anniversary

5. Upload Mindfully with Camera Roll

While the Camera Roll import makes it easy to share content from other apps, don‘t go overboard. Snapchat is still a place for raw, authentic sharing. Use Camera Roll sparingly and subtly for content that still feels natural on the platform.

6. Set a Strong My Eyes Only PIN

If you use the My Eyes Only feature, make sure to choose a unique, secure PIN and never share it. But even with a PIN, remember that no digital storage is completely private. Be very selective about what you save there.

7. Export Important Memories

Since social media apps can change or shut down without much warning, it‘s smart to export your most precious Memories from time to time. You can export individual snaps, stories, or your whole archive from the Settings menu. Save them somewhere safe offline!

Used thoughtfully and strategically, Snapchat Memories can be an incredibly powerful asset for both casual users and brands. While the core ephemeral Snapchat experience isn‘t going anywhere, Memories has undeniably expanded the possibilities of the platform and cemented its staying power in an ultra-competitive social media landscape.