Snapchat's 'Our Story' now available to everyone

Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat is working its way out of the doldrums. Slowly but surely, we're starting to see more reasons to use it than the, uh, traditional ones. One of those is 'Our Story', a feature that crowd sources content into a single timeline. Rolling out today, Our Story might just have you rethinking your stance on Snapchat.

It works like this: rather than share your snaps to a friend, you add them to a timeline. In the sharing options, popular timelines based on your location will pop up. If you're at a music festival, not only can you get real-time info on things you may not be aware of, but those who didn't go can as well.

Viewing and sharing take different routes with Our Story. When users open the app, they'll see an "Our (whatever) Story" viewing option. Things shared to the timeline will be anonymous, too.

Snapchat tested Our Story out at the Electric Daisy Carnival and other music-centric events this Summer, and had over 350 hours of content shared. Events are viewable under the "Live" section in the Snapchat menu, where you just long-press the screen to see video and pics flash by.

Though it's only been tested at music festivals, it's not hard to imagine different implications, should this catch on. When all pictures and video are cobbled together under one heading, the chance for a more real-time information gathering system is both exciting and frightening.

Source: Snapchat