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Snapchat makes it possible to search for Stories by keywords

The change should make it easier for people to discover more content on Snapchat, perhaps leading to more time spent in the app.

Danny Sullivan on March 31, 2017 at 1:01 pm

Want to find Stories about particular places or topics being shared on Snapchat? The company has announced a new search feature that it says will make this possible.

In a post today, Snapchat shared that the ability to keyword search for matching Stories — which are collections of Snaps over a 24-hour period — is coming to its app.

The move comes about four months after Snapchat introduced a universal search bar to find other types of content within the app.

The feature is going live today in selected (but unnamed) cities and seems only to search through “Our Stories,” which are Stories that have been created by Snapchat based on user contributions. Individuals can also share their own Stories to the public, but the feature doesn’t appear to search for those. We’re double-checking on this.

Snapchat also says that along with the search feature, it’s also hoping to create many more Stories related to places and events, in part through the use of machine learning. Previously, creating Stories like this depended on a human curation team, which Snapchat said was getting overwhelmed.

Here’s a video of how Snapchat says the new feature will work:

Not up on Snapchat Stories and how it all works? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered here: Marketing Land’s guide on how to use Snapchat.

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.