The latest addition to Snapchat is the ability of users to create stories which are limited to specific friends so they can all add to that story together. With these stories, you can choose you can specifically add to them, but you can also control who can view this story. These new stories can also be specific to direct contacts, as well as friends within a certain geofenced region. Other than that, these custom stories will work in the same way that normal Snapchat Stories do, and will disappear within 24 hours if no one else adds to it in this time period.

The novel custom Story feature is especially handy for larger occasions and special events, such as birthdays, parties and weddings. The custom Stories can be set up with the intent of sharing over more extensive distances or as a form of enabling people within the same physical region to be able to contribute to the same group Snapchat pool. Users can only create a maximum of three custom Stories at one time, but they may participate in an uncapped amount of such created by others.

In terms of non-geofenced custom Stories, when you set on up, you invite the people of your choice so they will be able to view the Story and may contribute to it if they wish. However, you also have the option of selecting additional people who may just view the Story—that is, if you want certain people to be able to view the Story but not add to it with their own snapchats.

In terms of a geofenced Story, you can either elect to allow any friends within the defined area to contribute, or you can set it up so that friends of your Snapchat friends may also join in—this feature is especially useful for larger settings like a party or wedding where the people at the event may not all be within your particular Snapchat friend group. Geofenced stories do not let you denote a separate group that solely has viewing permissions, so any person within the geofence that is applicable to the categories, depending on which ones you choose, will also be able to add to the Story with their own snapchats.

To go about creating your own custom Story, go over to the Stories page on your Snapchat app and click on the “Create Story” plus sign icon towards the trop right corner of the screen. To contribute after you have successfully joined a custom Story, just search for it under the “My Story” line item in your friends list.

This latest Snapchat feature is an especially important tool to be utilized when taking into account how Snapchat is used during special events and road trips. It additionally enhances the Snapchat experience even further in a manner which could enable the app to keep its loyal consumers engaged as the general user demographic ages.

Custom Stories will be available as of today on iOS and should also become available for Snapchat users on Android devices roughly within the next day or so.

Featured Image via Wikimedia.