Picture an older version of yourself, reliving memories from your crazy youth, all saved in your Snapchat account. All those insane antics, preserved for posterity and readily available whenever you were in the mood for a good round of nostalgia. Up until about a month ago, Snapchat didn't offer this functionality, there was no way to actually save your Snap content within the app. But now, thanks to their latest feature called "Memories", all of your Snaps can now be secured away and saved for you as long as you have an account.
This means you'll not only have a permanent record of your Snaps, but you'll also be able to easily curate and re-send them, no matter how old they are.
No More "View it and Forget It"
Before Memories (as opposed to "memories" with a lower-case "m"), you'd create a Snap (that is, a video or a photo), send it to your Friends (your Snapchat contacts), and they'd get a momentary glimpse of your content. Then snap, it's all over with and they never get to see it again (unless you put it in your Story area, which means it's available for viewing for 24 hours). What's more, unless you saved your Snaps to your phone, you'd never have access to them again, either - but even that process was awkward because what's the use of saving your Snaps if you can't send them again?
Then came the third-party apps for permanently saving Snaps and Stories, but same problem: there was no way to retrieve, edit, curate, or send those saved Snaps from within Snapchat. Clumsy.
Now, all of this can be done in one seamless operation from within the Snapchat app. Here's how it works.
Here's Your 5-Minute Intro to Snapchat Memories
Memories was only released in July, so you may not yet have it in your Snapchat account - they staged the function's roll-out access so they could fix any bugs before releasing it to all. There's a good chance, however, that Memories is already already enabled in your account - have you received a Snap from Team Snapchat about it? That's your notification that you can start using Memories.
Another way to check: log into Snapchat, and from your main screen, simply swipe upwards. That's where your Memories are located. Now you're ready to access and start making Memories. Here's how...
1. How to Save Memories
If you've saved your Snaps before, nothing has changed. After creating a Snap or a Story, tap the download/save button at the bottom of your screen. Voila... you've just made a Memory. The only difference now is that instead of saving to your phone's camera roll, you're saving content to the Memories section.
2. Pulling Memories into "My Story"
Saving a Snap forever turns it into a Memory, but it doesn't put that Snap into your current Story ("My Story") or make it accessible in any way to anyone else. If you want to share your Memories with your Friends, put them in "My Story" (remember, "My Story" is your ongoing 24-hour stream). To do that, you'll have to access your Memories, then import the Snaps you want into your Story.
3. Importing Memories
From the Memories screen, look for the check box icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Tap it, and then you're able to select multiple Memories to pull into "My Story" for 24-hour viewing for your Friends. Notice there are two tabs at the top of the screen: "Memories" and "Camera Roll". That's because the Memories feature lets you select photos and videos saved on your phone's Camera Roll, too. Select, then they go into your Story or directly to your Friends.
4. Sending Memories to Friends
If you just want to offer that fleeting glimpse of your Memory to a Snapchat Friend or several of your Friends, you go through pretty much the same process as you would when adding that Memory to "My Story" - that is, access your Memories by swiping up from the main screen, select using the checkbox feature in the upper right hand corner, then tap the large arrow in the lower right hand corner of your screen.
5. Creating Stories
Memories can also be used to create new Stories - to do this, follow the steps outlined above, then instead of choosing the "send" arrow, choose the circle+ icon. Circles stand for Stories in Snapchat, and the "+" means make a new one. Then save that Story into Memories - in the future you'll know it's a Story because its screenshot is circular. You can now send that newly-curated Story using the method described in Step 4.
One Final Note About Snapchat Memories
Snapchat newbies: don't let all this intimidate you. Even if you haven't yet mastered the essentials, Memories is merely a new name for what you call your saved Snaps. In fact, if you're new to Snapchat, you'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Once you practice with Memories for about 3 minutes, you'll have it down pat. Now, go and create some real memories so you can some practice with this great new feature of Snapchat.