Smartphones allow a consumer to capture high-resolution photo or video and put it out on social media for people to watch and experience live. However, the ability to find these videos can be difficult if someone you don’t personally know has shared them. Last year, Snapchat introduced a feature called “Snap Maps,” which has been a “window” into real-time news events and global experiences.
Snapchat has over 173 million users that take more than 3 billion snaps per day. However, unless you were privately sent a snap by someone or saw a public snap, there was no way of being connected to what was going on in the world through those 3 billion snaps. Snap Maps fixed that problem. As a user, Snap Maps is a fun way to see what your friends are doing and what is going on around the world. Another benefit of Snapchat, in general, is that it gathers snaps from people who are in the same location as concerts or parades. Snapchat allows you to “discover” that event on your map and experience it alongside those who are there. In addition, Snapchat provides just regular snaps of people living their daily lives. Snapchat uses advanced learning techniques that collect public Snapchats that might be fun and interesting for the Snapchat community.
With the use of Snap Maps, you can “follow” your friends in their travels around the world. For example, if one of your friends went abroad for the semester, you can see where they are in Italy or Ireland and what it is like to live there. People can see the world without actually having to be there in person to see it.
Snapchat users document every aspect of their lives, so it is no surprise that they would document news events that occur in their local area. People can go onto Snap Map, pinch in to see the map, and click on a part of the world they want to know about or find out what is going on. It is easy to see how Snap Maps can come in handy in times of crisis. If a natural disasters occurs, people can use snapchat to pinpoint the exact location of their loved ones and to gain information about what is going on. This feature is giving us the opportunity to break down barriers. Snap Maps is a tool of an emerging global world which seeks to overcome perceived boundaries between citizens of different countries. It allows us to be more thoughtful and informed global citizens.