Memories Update Makes it Easier to Create Polished Content for Snapchat — Check Out What Sam Sheffer Did

Here's an example of how a photo from the camera roll looks on Snapchat.
Here’s an example of how a photo from the camera roll looks on Snapchat.

The Memories update came out last week for Snapchat and has been rolling out to users since. While the update has a few new features to the app, the biggest is that users can upload photos and videos to the camera roll and send them to their stories.

Videos and photos posted from the camera roll to Snapchat will have a gray box around them with the Snapchat user’s display name and when the image or video was created.

You can see what Snapchat says about the update in their blog post here and watch a short video about it.

While this will allow users more to more easily access an archive of their snaps and stories (if they choose to save them), it also gives everyone the ability to upload more polished pieces of work like photos, graphics and videos to Snapchat stories.

When the update first came out, I saw Sam Sheffer upload a video to  his Snapchat story using Memories and quickly saw some of the potential for this new update. For his Snap story, he shot a video (vertically), edited the clips together on his computer, exported the video and then uploaded it to Snapchat using the Memories option. Once it was there, he posted the video to Youtube so there could be an archive for the masses to see if they missed it in his story.

I saw the video on his Snap story that day and was impressed not only that he had the foresight to try uploading an edited video using the new Memories update, but also how he seemed to pay attention to where the 10-second breaks would naturally occur in the story and edit around them accordingly (Snapchat only allows each photo or video to be 10 seconds long before it jumps to the next clip). While you can’t see this on his Snapchat story anymore (you can find him on Snapchat at: SamSheffer) you can view what he did on Youtube as he archived it there (and I embedded it below). To get the full effect, make sure to watch the video FULL SCREEN and VERTICALLY on your phone (you won’t get the same effect on the desktop or with the black bars on the side.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this or ideas on how journalists could utilize this new update.

Aaron Manfull

Aaron is in his 26th year of advising student media. He is currently the Director of Student Media at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles, Missouri. He is the Journalism Education Association Digital Media Chair and co-Director of Media Now. He is the 2023 JEA Teacher Inspiration Award Winner and is a former Dow Jones News Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year. He is one of the authors of the textbook "Student Journalism and Media Literacy." You can find him on X and Instagram @manfull. He's a proud father. A transplanted Iowan. And an avid Hawkeye Fan.

Aaron Manfull has 862 posts and counting. See all posts by Aaron Manfull

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