The Snapchat has introduced a slew of new features this week, including the ability to tag friends with “Mentions” feature and make group video calls. If you want to tag a friend, just start typing in “@,” spell out the username of the person, then tap on the name you want tagged. Just like Instagram Stories or Facebook, people who see the tagged snap will be able to swipe up and add the person as a friend or watch any public stories they’ve posted. It should be noted that if you are tagged in a snap, you will get a notification in the chat window that you’ve been mentioned in your story.
Seems we are now seeing a reversal of flow where Snapchat seems to be the one copying Instagram Stories. Snap said the feature is something “influencers / celebs will be particularly excited about.” That’s true, given that it will allow these users the ability to easily tag a brand or company they might be promoting with a click-through link for their followers.
The video chat feature, meanwhile, will allow up to 16 friends to conduct a video chat with each other simultaneously. If you have more people who want to participate, up to 32 people can join a group voice chat instead. Snapchat initially introduced one-on-one voice and video calling back in 2016 and said users are making millions of calls on Snapchat each day.
To use the video group chat feature, enter an existing group chat you already have, or start a new group. Tap the video icon to start a live group video chat, or tap on the phone icon for a voice call. The members of the group will be notified that they’ve been invited to a call. When they enter the video chat, you’ll get an alert above your keyboard to let you know they’ve joined. If you don’t want to use your camera, you can toggle it off and join with just voice. Users will also be able to filter Snapchat lenses over their faces, like the epochal rainbow vomiting mouth or puppy dog ears.
Over the past few months, Snapchat has added a mountain of new features in a bid to attract more users including: Map Explore; deluxe Bitmoji customization; Giphy integration; and custom face lenses. Snap says the new video group call and tagging features will roll out globally over the next week or so.
