Snapchat's Dynamic Stories bring RSS-based news feeds to the masses

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Snapchat Dynamic Stories
Snapchat Dynamic Stories (Image credit: Snap)

What you need to know

  • Snapchat has announced Dynamic Stories.
  • Dynamic Stories will use RSS feeds to pull news into the Snapchat app.
  • Publishers don't need to do additional work and everything is automated.

Snapchat has announced that it is bringing news stories to its app via publishers' existing RSS feeds. The news will appear as Dynamic Stories, the video and photo-based social network says, with big publishers already signed on across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and India.

The move was announced via a newsroom post, with the outfit saying that Dynamic Stories will appear in the users' Discover feed and update in real-time as new stories appear.

Available in the Discover feed, these Stories update in real-time, meaning Snapchatters can keep up with the latest news as it breaks. Whether it's breaking news from credible sources on the war in Ukraine or the latest in pop-culture or fashion, Dynamic Stories helps Snapchatters learn about the world as it happens.

For its news partners, no additional work will be required. Dynamic Stories will pull images and text directly from the websites' existing RSS feeds, ensuring the whole process is automated. Snapchat has also confirmed which early partners will be part of the test, too.

  • US: Axios, Bloomberg, Buzzfeed, CNN, Complex Networks, Condé Nast (Self, Vogue), ESPN, Insider, New York Post, Page Six, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TMZ, Tom's Guide, Vice
  • UK: British Vogue, GQ UK, PinkNews, The Independent, The Mirror
  • France: Femme Actuelle, Foot Mercato, Gala, GQ France, Le Figaro, Marie Claire FR, Paris Match, Vogue France
  • India: GQ India, MissMalini, Pinkvilla, Sportskeeda, The Quint, Times Now, Vogue India

Unlike other social networks, none of Snapchat's news is open to unvetted individuals or publishers. That ensures, in theory at least, that the news being pumped into Dynamic Stories will be of a higher quality and, more importantly, trustworthy. The new feature is rolling out now to users in the launch countries.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.