Snapchat is rolling out a new set of features called Plans, which allows friends to organize events and meetups without leaving the app. Plans aims to turn birthday celebrations, study meetings or weekend plans, which are often talked about in group chats, into real events on a more regular basis. Users can set the details of the event, invite their friends, and follow who will attend via Snapchat. In this way, the date, time and participation information between different messages in the group chat are collected in one place. Snapchat is also expanding its current structure, which focuses on social communication, to include event organization.
Up to 200 friends can be invited to an event created through Plans. The invitations use Snapchat’s Bitmoji characters, which have long been a key element of the app’s visual identity. Moreover, these Bitmoji images change dynamically depending on the friends’ response to the invitation. While invitations are sent via one-on-one chat, automatic reminders are sent to participants as the event time approaches. This structure can reduce the need to repeatedly ask who is coming via message, especially in organizations with many people.
Snapchat Plans brings events into one section
Snapchat also adds a special tab called “My Plans” to user profiles so that created events can be easily found later. In this section, both upcoming events and past plans can be viewed. Therefore, Plans is not just a function of sending invitations, but also offers a central area where users can track their event history. Combined with automatic reminders, Snapchat is trying to bridge the gap between simple group chats and separate event planning apps. In addition, the invitation limit of 200 people allows the feature to be used not only for small groups of friends but also for larger social organizations.
Plans also has an equivalent for Snapchat beyond user experience. Snap faces challenges keeping users on the platform, especially in some critical markets for the company. Features like Plans that further tie daily social interaction into the app could keep users returning to Snapchat not just to send messages or share Snaps, but to check on their upcoming events. At this point, the My Plans tab and automatic reminders attract attention; because they both offer functionality that can redirect the user back to the application after the event is created. However, the extent to which Plans can replace the calendar and event organization tools that users currently use will depend on the adoption of the feature in daily use.
On the other hand, Snap has not only been interested in the software features of the Snapchat application lately. The company also allocates resources to glasses projects focusing on augmented reality features and tries to maintain its goals on the hardware side. Therefore, Snapchat’s ability to maintain user loyalty in its core social app becomes more evident in a period when the company is working on different products simultaneously. In this respect, instead of trying to create a completely different social habit, Plans organizes the plans that users already make in group chats. This is where the strength of the feature lies; It adds invitations, attendance tracking and reminders to the existing chat flow without requiring learning a separate event service.
The practical benefit of Plans may be more evident in groups of friends who use Snapchat heavily. Keeping event details, invitations and attendance information in the same app can make managing small events easier. On the other hand, for groups that use different messaging applications or people who manage their plans through their phone’s calendar application, the 200-person capacity alone may not be enough to switch to Plans. The key question for Snap will be whether users will regularly move the planning process, which begins naturally in chat, to Plans. While the new feature brings useful tools that complement Snapchat’s existing form of communication, its success appears to depend largely on how naturally these tools can be used within everyday groups of friends.
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