Snapchat adds new creative tools as its rivalry with Instagram intensifies

Snapchat added a set of new creative tools to its arsenal today amid a growing rivalry with Facebook’s army of clones, most notably Instagram. Coming to the ephemeral messenger today are snaps with unlimited viewing time, the ability to “draw” with emoji, and a “magic eraser” that removes objects from your snaps and fills them in with their surroundings. The move comes the same week that Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, will report its quarterly earnings for the first time as a public company.

The first two tools rolling out today let you view snaps longer. Snapchat messages self-destruct after 1 to 10 seconds, as chosen by the sender. Now you can set the snap to “limitless,” letting the recipient view your picture for as long as you like, by tapping an infinity icon. It will still self-destruct after they close the message, though.

Snapchat is also introducing looping videos — essentially the video version of a limitless snap. Record a video, tap the looping icon, and it will repeat until your friend closes the snap. With looping videos, Snapchat is taking a step toward Boomerangs — Instagram’s own short-form looping video format.

The company also has a new way to draw. Starting today, you can create a virtual pen out of emoji — letting you spell out a word out of smiley faces or hearts. It’s useful for anyone who has ever dreamed of covering their friend in eggplants but didn’t want to add each emoji individually.

Finally, Snapchat is introducing the “magic eraser” to its existing scissor tool — a mobile take on Photoshop’s content-aware fill tool. Rub the eraser on an object and it will fill in the space with the background. In a promotional video, Snap shows a soccer ball removed from a photo and replaced with the ivy wall behind it. 

To accommodate the new features, the creative tools are moving from the top of the app to the right-hand side of the snap’s preview screen. “These changes allow us to continue evolving the Snapchat service and provide a foundation for introducing even more creative tools for making fun snaps,” the company said in a blog post.

The new tools will begin arriving today on iOS and Android.