Snapchat Memories Feature Launches In Selective Roll Out

Snapchat has revealed a new archive feature for its immensely popular app today, introducing us to Memories. Sort of like Stories but more permanent, Memories aims to allow users to recall Snaps that are more than a day old and either watch them on their own or put them together into a new story that's shareable with friends. Snapchat positions this as a good way to look at back at trips or put together a little something for a big life event, like a birthday or an anniversary.

It would appear that the Snaps users take are saved automatically to Memories, which are then accessed by swiping up from the camera. From there, users can search previous Snaps to find the ones that are relevant to the Story they'd like to create. Users can also select their more private Snaps from the Memories panel and label them as "My Eyes Only," preventing those Snaps from appearing in stories and potentially causing some embarrassing moments.

Snapchat says that when you send a Snap from your Memories to your friends, it'll be given a special border to let your friends know that you're revisiting a moment from the past rather than keeping them up to date on your current happenings. Memories aren't backed up locally, instead backing up automatically to Snapchat's servers. The company was quick to let users know that it won't be backing up images from users' photo libraries unless they're used in a Snap or a Story.

If Memories sounds like a feature you're interested in trying out, you should know that it isn't going live to all Snapchat users at the same time. To ensure everything is functioning properly, Snapchat has chosen to roll out this feature over the next month to a select number of users, alerting those who are selected to test out Memories through a chat. All in all, Memories sounds like a feature some users might appreciate, even if it does seem to defeat the original purpose of Snapchat itself.