In a welcome piece of UX redesign, Snapchat is halting its habit of automatically adding a white border to old photos that users share from Memories.

Old snap memories

Until now, sharing a photo that was more than 24 hours old would incur a compulsory white border. The border was presumably meant to signify the snap’s it’s less-than-immediate nature.

The lack of immediacy, of course, runs contrary to Snapchat’s vision of an ever-emanant and ephemeral social space.

Thing is, people tend not to like it when their snaps are defaced without warning nor any opt-out ability. 

Better sans border

As of now, instead of an unpopular white border, shared Memories will be marked with a small note at the top saying how old the image is.

As an indicator of age, it’s much less intrusive than the white border and far less likely to be accused of making people’s Snapchat screen an uglier place.

Notably, images imported from outside of snapchat will still incur a white border around the image.

Snap strategy

Snapchatters disliked the compulsory white border so much that it actually reduced the sharing of older snaps. UX that disincentivises sharing is not a social. So, Snap had to change.

The change shows that Snap wants to be the go-to camera app for their users. Folks who take all their photos via Snapchat will be able to share all historical snaps sans-borders.

If they insist on using their phone’s default camera app, they’ll incur a dreaded border whenever they share memories that weren’t initially recorded with Snapchat in mind.

Can your brand do Snap better now old snaps can show up sans border?

Copy Transmission is a Melbourne-based agency :: Better Brands. Loud & Clear.