Snapchat wants to help you "Discover" more than your friends' latest goofy photos. The app today added a new service that pulls in photos, videos, and articles from publications and networks like National Geographic, People magazine, Comedy Central, The Food Network, and ESPN.
Discover also features Snapchat's own content. Just don't call it social media.
"Social media companies tell us what to read based on what's most recent or most popular," the Snapchat team wrote in a blog announcement. Instead, Discover counts on editors and artists, "not clicks and shares," to determine what's most important to users.
"Discover is different because it has been built for creatives," the company boasted. "[W]e built the technology to serve the art."
Tap on CNN, Cosmopolitan, Vice, or Yahoo News to find full-screen photos and videos, longer stories, and what Snapchat called "gorgeous advertising."
Snapchat first rolled out ads in October. "An advertisement will appear in your Recent Updates from time to time, and you can choose if you want to watch it. No biggie. It goes away after you view it or within 24 hours, just like Stories," CEO Evan Spiegel said at the time.
Stories, which rolled out in late 2013, let you share snaps with all of your friends at once. Put several snaps into one Story, which will live for 24 hours before it disappears.
"Stories are at the core" of Discover, Snapchat said today. "There's a beginning, middle, and end so that editors can put everything in order."
Tap to open an "edition," each of which is refreshed after 24 hours to make room for the latest news and entertainment. Swipe left to browse Snaps; swipe up on a Snap to find more content, and swipe down to return to the main menu.
Check out the new Discovery service in action in the video above.