Snapchat is having a moment – albeit, not quite the moment of a few months ago, but still a moment. With the recent IPO of its parent company Snap Inc. and ongoing updates that make the app more interactive for users, Snapchat has become one of the most popular apps among young people.
According to the company, the majority of Snapchat users are 18 to 34 years old. They open the app more than 20 times a day and use it an average of 30 minutes a day. Snapchat’s user population is engaged and it’s obvious. It’s why companies like Instagram and Facebook have copied Snapchat and launched their own “Stories” features that enable users to post and send disappearing photos and videos to their friends and followers. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?
Since the majority of Snapchat’s user base is also now the largest demographic in the workforce, it makes a lot of sense that workplace software providers are trying to replicate Snapchat as well. Here are three Snapchat features that workplace software companies are mimicking (or trying to) and why IT leaders should leverage them to drive engagement within their workforce:
Easy annotation and customization: One of the most popular features in Snapchat is the ability to customize selfies and photos with silly filters, emojis, location tags, and hand-drawn images. Users can take a photo and quickly add custom text and images to illustrate a point and send it off to their friends. In the workplace, a solution called CloudApp takes a similar approach to enable employees to visually communicate faster than with previous tools. Instead of passing around filtered selfies, CloudApp allows employees to send each other annotated screenshots, animation prototypes, and short videos to help accomplish a task. Apps like this increase employee collaboration and encourage creativity in the workplace.
Security and encryption: When Snapchat first launched in 2011, its primary appeal was that images and messages would only be available for a short time – 10 seconds or less in the early days – before they became inaccessible. Confide, a secure messaging app, embodies that “send and disappear” aspect of Snapchat. It enables users to send encrypted messages that self-destruct. While the app has recently become popular among White House staffers, it is a great solution for employees who need to communicate and share confidential information with the assurance that it won’t get into the wrong hands.
Bite-size pieces of information: One of the most recent features to come to Snapchat is Discover. A year ago, the app’s developers redesigned Discover so publishers could share curated content with users in an interactive, manageable way. Now users can quickly swipe through stories, videos, infographics, and quizzes, and then click to access the full article or get more details. Like Discover, Sapho's modern portal provides employees with a single place to go and get personalized information from all their systems. Simple clicks and swipes allow employees to drill into more information or complete tasks directly in the portal. When employees are given solutions that surface data in actionable, bite-size pieces, they become more effective and productive.
Enterprise software is clunky and hard to use, and as a result, employees have simply stopped using it. To drive application adoption, IT organizations must look to solutions that are purpose-built for the enterprise, but that embrace the successful formula of apps like Snapchat. The more workplace software can mimic these Snapchat-like features in the tools they build, the more engagement and productivity they’ll see from employees in the long term.