Snapchat Adds Mini Apps: This Is The Future
Snapchat is rolling out a new feature called Snap Minis. Snap Minis are essentially miniature apps that exist within the Snapchat platform and bring added functionality to the overall social media app. You can check out this video of the announcement of Snap Minis that were announced last month: https://youtu.be/qye-qIdwV8M.
An interesting article from Kim Lyons at The Verge about Snap Minis cites the fact that many Snapchat users face depression or anxiety challenges, and so Snapchat wants to provide a way to deal with those concerns without needing to leave the app itself. Therefore, one of the Snap Minis that is launching is the meditation app Headspace. The other Snap Minis launching here at the beginning are as follows:
The List*
*List retrieved from Lucas Matney at TechCrunch.
The Context
So what does this mean? It sounds a little bit like app inception when you try to describe it, but that’s really what it is. It’s apps within an app. You’ll be able to access at least portions of these other apps inside the Snapchat platform, so you’ll gain their functionalities without having to leave the Snapchat interface. I mentioned Headspace earlier; so if you want to get your meditation time in for the day, you can now do so without exiting the Snapchat app to open the Headspace app. It’s just already there for you.
I have seen a few other articles compare this to Apple’s recent announcement at WWDC 2020 of App Clips. In iOS 14, Apple is introducing the ability to access some functionality of certain apps like shopping, purchasing, etc. without actually having to download the full app. While the idea of having a miniature version of the app is similar, Snapchat Minis to me feels more like what other social media platforms have been doing for a long time actually. Sure it isn’t to the level of partnering with third-party app developers like this, but the goal is and has always been the same: to give you a reason to stay within the app.
Other Platforms Have Been Doing This
What other platforms have done this in the past? Facebook, for one, has had a history of providing other types of experiences within its app that go far beyond its original intention of connecting you with other people. Yes, Facebook has always been about adding friends, messaging, and keeping up with friends, but for years, it has also included other types of activities. Think about the early days of Facebook game apps. I remember all too well Farmville taking over the world for what felt like an eternity. And there were other games and other types of apps that you could connect through Facebook, all with the same intent as Snap Minis, which is to give you things to do to keep you within the app.
This philosophy goes way beyond just adding other apps to experience, however. Facebook in general has been advancing what the platform is for the past few years. For example, the advent of sharing videos on Facebook really changed the overall user experience to the point that part of Facebook’s core function is sharing/consuming viral videos. Then, Facebook introduced the ability to go live or to watch other people create live content. Once again, the idea there is to keep users on the platform.
Then, Facebook gave you away to buy and sell through Facebook’s interface. You no longer had to exit the app or go away from the website to a Craigslist or eBay in order to buy and sell. It wants to keep you in its platform and ecosystem. I wrote just the other day about an update to Facebook Messenger, and in that article, I mentioned Facebook‘s need to keep innovating its messaging app in order to keep you in its ecosystem. And that has been Facebook’s drive for years.
Instagram, a Facebook-owned company, has also been doing this. Remember when Instagram was only about sharing photos? Me neither. Now, Instagram is about watching live content, watching temporary stories, watching longer videos through IGTV, clicking affiliate links in order to purchase items. At the end of the day, Instagram does not care what you do in order to stay on the platform; it just wants you to stay there
I don’t want this to sound like I am talking bad about Facebook for this strategy because I’m not. Another wonderful example is a simple messaging app called WeChat. While this app isn’t used in the United States where I live, it’s extremely popular in China. One of the things that makes it so popular is its versatile functionality. You aren’t just messaging your friends; you are sending money, making payments in stores, and even playing games. And WeChat isn’t the only messaging app to expand its functionality in order to keep users in the app.
Think about how much messaging apps have matured in recent years. Now, they must be a good text messenger, provide a good video experience, allow you to send and receive images and GIFs, sometimes allow you to draw messages, and more. Gone are the days of having a simple texting app.
A Look Ahead
I say all of this to say that what Snapchat is doing his self preservation. And I also think this is just the beginning. Yes, I have mentioned a number of examples showing how Facebook and other social media platforms have been offering more and more to do so that you won’t leave. But I don’t think that is going to stop or even slow down; instead, it’s only going to become more prevalent. Why? Because the nature of modern social media platforms is all about selling ad space.
Being able to say that you have X amount of users daily or monthly significantly increases the amount of ad revenue a social media platform can make. And being able to claim that users not only visit daily but when they do visit, they spend X amount of time within the app, also increases those dividends. Once again, I am not throwing judgment on this fact, but I do want to make sure that this reality is expressed. Yes, a company can care about you as a user at the same time it’s making money off of you, but in the end, it is indeed making money off of you. It needs you to spend as much time in its app as possible.
One reason I find it so interesting that Snapchat is being forthright about the issue of depression and anxiety among its users is that one theory about social media is that it causes an increase in depression and anxiety. So now we have a situation where this platform is providing assistance to cope with a problem that it could be enabling. Let me be clear in the fact that I am not a psychologist nor a medical professional, so I am only speculating or repeating arguments that I have read. And I am in no way saying Snapchat is the cause of those issues–it is theorized that social media as a whole is part of the problem.
In the end, I see this as a way for Snapchat to expand its offerings to its users. And like I’ve said, the strategy will only continue as we move forward. So let me ask you this: what are your favorite features of your social media platform of choice? What is it that keeps you on the platform? And as we do move forward in this age of a platform ecosystems, what do you think will be the differentiating factors between all of these apps? Because as these strategies advance, there’s only a certain amount of time in the day that we can devote to all of these different platforms. We will begin to be funneled into certain individual systems, forcing us to choose which ecosystems to live within.