Snapchat’s new Group feature lets you chat with 16 friends at once

With a potential IPO filing in its future and the recent release of Spectacles, it’s been a full year for Snapchat. Even so, Snap is going to close it out with a few more updates before 2016 comes to an end.

Snapchat parent company Snap recently announced a few new features, beginning with the launch of Groups — a chat feature that allows users to add up to 16 people to a conversation. After selecting the members of the group, the initiator can name the chat.

Users can chat, as well as send pictures and videos, with the knowledge that everything they send will vanish after 24 hours. Snapchat stays true to its calling card by including a self-delete feature, meaning that everything sent in a group chat will be deleted after 24 hours.

Furthermore, Snaps sent in groups chats can only be opened once and replayed only once by each member in the group, just like a regular Snap. The group chat also allows users to have side conversations with any one member of the group. To do this, users can tap on any member’s name while they’re active in the chat to begin a one-on-one conversation.

In addition, Snap introduced two new creative tools called Scissors and Paintbrush. Scissors is a tool used to cut out part of a Snap for later use as a sticker. Paintbrush allows users to draw on the Snaps they’ve saved in Memories.

Based on the note left on Snap’s official blog, this will likely be the last new feature released for Snapchat this year.

Now, as the team at Snap puts it, Merry Snapping!

[source]Snap[/source]