It seems that Snapchat has come up with a strange way to browse the web. The idea? Browse the web by snapping a photo.
On Tuesday, January 31, Snapchat, added a feature to its mobile app for people to turn links into “Snapcodes,” which is Snapchat’s version of QR codes. These Snapcodes can be used to open web pages within Snapchats in-app browser. Currently, the feature is only available to iPhone users.
If you’d like to create a Snapcode, just open Snapchat’s in-app settings, select “Snapcodes,” and then select “Create Snapcodes.” After that, past the URL of the web page you’d like to share, and then add an image that will appear within the Snapcode. Snapchat will automatically pull images from the web page as option. Once you’ve completed the Snapcode, it will be saved to your phone’s camera roll, which will be inserted anywhere you can insert a photo, such as embedded on a website, posted to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
If you want to open a link from a Snapcode, take a picture of the Snapcode using Snapcode’s in-app camera. You’ll then be prompted to open the link. As a security measure, URL-laden Snapcodes will include the domain of the site being linked to.
Even though brands and publishers are able to add parameters to a URL, which allows them to track when people are visiting a link from Snapchat, Snapchat will provide in-app analytics for Snapcodes that have been scanned at least 100 times. For eligible links, the person who created the Snapcode will be able to see the total number of scans over a three month period, as well as the percentage of people who opened the link once it was scanned.