Snap Maps is the Future

Here’s Where I See it Going

Go to the camera on Snapchat and pinch out. You’ll be presented with an extremely accurate (almost scary accurate) map of the world with your friends’ Bitmoji’s planted on their current location (if they choose to let you see). You can view their story by tapping their Bitmoji or view the story for a location if there is a cue to do it (glowing light showing a cluster of people snapping).

For me I see the value in this feature being lying in:

1. Finding out if any of my friends are nearby and asking if they want to hangout
2. Finding out if something cool is happening around me and deciding if I want to go check it out

But I also see it being used for things like this in the future:

1. Reviewing locations on Snapchat/Future Yelp Killer
2. Stores/locations paying to be promoted on Snap Maps
3. Having a status on your Bitmoji for where you are, what you’re doing, how things are going there (ie. letting your friends know you’re stuck in traffic)

Reviewing Locations

I see location reviews working in a less sophisticated way than Yelp, but the information being more relevant to the user. I imagine it working like a sticky-note that you can leave on a location that’s only visible to your friends. This opens it up to more than just reviewing restaurants or shops, you could leave a note saying “traffic sucks here” or “nobody picks up their dog’s poop at this park”. These sticky note reviews could only last for 24 hours like a Snapstory.

Buying Ad-Space

Stores/locations/events could pay to be promoted on Snap Maps. This would be outside the realm of a regular story generated by large amounts of users in one location, this could be a subscription service or one time purchase for a certain amount of time. Paid space could be represented by a custom logo instead of the regular story icon. When tapped the logo could take you to curated stories by the owner.

Bitmoji Status

So simple to add, can’t wait until they do so I can say I did it first

This is my personal favourite of my concept features. Having a status on your Bitmoji. This is almost like an extension of the sticky note reviews or a text story. I feel like this would lead to the death of just text Snapstories. It also let’s people know what you’re doing when you can’t post a Snapstory, like when you’re in a meeting. It would make Snapchat a one stop shop for sharing your day.

Snap Maps serves as a way to differentiate Snapchat from any similar servies out there, but also to break into a new market with a feature that I personally haven’t seen in another mobile app before. It’s a feature that I believe will bring back a level of intimacy for Snapchat that was lost when the Snapstory became labeled a marketing tool.