Everything You Think You Know About How People Are Using Snapchat Is Wrong

Most people who don't use Snapchat usually envision the app as the go-to sexting platform for teens looking to leave no trace.

That may have originally been true, but as Snapchat continues to grow, its users have begun to gravitate toward the app's different offerings and uses.

The biggest feature to take off recently has been Snapchat Stories, a visual status update of sorts that strings together Snaps a user chooses to make public. Snapchat Stories can be watched and re-watched anytime during this 24-hour period.

In the last two months, sharing of Snapchat Stories has increased 100%, according to a new report from Business Insider Intelligence.

People are now viewing over 1 billion Snapchat Stories a day, overtaking the 760 million disappearing photos and video messages sent each day.

This represents an important shift in how people are using Snapchat on a daily basis.

The traditional disappearing Snaps are usually sent to a select number of a user's friends, and this use of Snapchat requires a bit more engagement. Stories, on the other hand, can be easily added with one tap, and reach the largest number of friends.

It's a less intimate form of communication, but when both options are available, users are now trending toward the public and long-lasting Stories, treating the feature almost like a visual Facebook status update.

You can read more of BII's Snapchat report here.