Snapchat is behind the launch of a new online technology magazine called "Real Life,"according to a VentureBeat report.

The social media company's involvement in Real Life was revealed in a blog post on Thursday by Snapchat employee and social media critic Nathan Jurgenson.

From June 27, Real Life will publish approximately one story each weekday on the intersection of life and tech.

"Real Life will publish essays, arguments, and narratives about living with technology," writes Jurgenson, who will serve as the publication's editor-in-chief. "It won’t be a news site with gadget reviews or industry gossip. It will be about how we live today and how our lives are mediated by devices. We plan to publish one piece of writing every weekday, though we may eventually expand to other mediums and formats as well."

In terms of what will be discussed on Real Life, Jurgenson says that articles will look at identity, power, privacy, surveillance, relationships, and beauty, as well as a number of other topics.

In his blog post, Jurgenson writes that Real Life is financially supported by Snapchat. "Snapchat is...funding Real Life, and we have editorial independence as well," he writes. "The support means we can focus on writers and writing rather than clicks and shares."

Other people working on Real Life include senior editors Rob Horning, Alexandra Molotkow, and Sarah Nicole Prickett, and managing editor Soraya King.

A Snapchat spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat that Real Life is "fully funded" by the company. Snapchat declined to comment to Business Insider.

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Snapchat has been secretly hard at work on what has been described as a competitor to Google Glass. A source has tipped Business Insider off, however, that Snapchat's supposedly top-secret project may have been hiding in plain sight.

In August, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel was pictured wearing a very different pair of sunglasses from his usual ones while on vacation in Corsica with his girlfriend, the model Miranda Kerr.

The paparazzi photos taken of Spiegel show him looking straight at a camera with a very circular pair of frames and what appears to be cameras on either side of them.

Compared with Spiegel's normal aviator style, the sunglasses photographed in August appear to have thicker frames and the attached cameras. They're similar to but aren't exactly clones of the glasses made by Vergence Labs, a company Snapchat acquired in 2014.

The source told Business Insider of being "shocked" that Spiegel had apparently worn the early prototype on vacations and that nobody noticed, though the CEO might have not been expecting to be photographed at the secluded beach. The photo was also taken months before news of Snapchat's hardware efforts surfaced, which may explain why it went unnoticed at the time.

Snapchat is "very serious" about a hardware play, a different source with knowledge of the situation told Business Insider, and the company has been on a hiring spree to build up its team for it. The company is regularly sending teams to China to work with contract manufacturers for the project, according to another source.

Snapchat's hardware ambitions first came to light in March, when CNET pointed to an earlier string of notable hardware hires, including eyewear designer Lauryn Morries and a former employee who listed his experience as working on highly miniaturized and very low-power electronics.

CNET speculated that Snapchat could be working on a Google Glass-like device, which would mark a major expansion for the social-networking startup, which is valued at more than $18 billion.

The photos of Spiegel wearing the alleged early prototype appeared six months before the report, meaning the company could be further along in development than previously thought.

Yet it's still ramping up production. In the past six months, the company has brought on two more hardware specialists from GoPro and a handful of specialists in low-powered electronics. Snapchat also hired the technical recruiter for Google's Project Aura, the group responsible for Glass, and the technical recruiter for Microsoft's HoloLens project.

Snapchat didn't immediately respond to request for comment.

Do you know more about Snapchat's plans? Email the reporter at bcarson@businessinsider.com.

SEE ALSO: Here's more evidence that Snapchat is working on a secret hardware product

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NOW WATCH: How to Snapchat from over 20,000 feet — as told by the Everest climbers that just did it

The day Snapchat brought in the bed was a weird day in the office. Next came the hangers in the closet with clothes on them and the pictures of random people on the walls.

Before long, it looked like Snapchat had set up an apartment inside the office, a former employee told Business Insider.

"It was like an IKEA set up, but nobody really slept there," the ex-Snapchatter said.

Adding a bed wasn't just a new office perk.

For the last 18 months, Snapchat has been inspected by the city of Los Angeles for its use of the Thornton Lofts apartment spaces, which the company uses as offices. The beds were hauled in ahead of an inspection by city officials, the former employee claims, to give the impression that someone was living there when really it was just more office space for Snapchat's growing staff to sprawl into.

A Snapchat representative said that the company was in compliance with regulations, but declined to comment further on the matter or provide information about who lives in the units.

Yet some of the neighbors were suspicious.

According to case records obtained by Business Insider through a public-records request, Snapchat's office at 619 S. Ocean Front Walk came under inspection by the LA Department of Building and Safety starting in March 2015 after somebody complained that it was being converted into another use.

The first complaint said that residents "believe that a commercial office/business use is being housed in the entire building, when part of it is supposed to be residential condo units."

The second complaint was more direct and included the other office space it had been renting.

"The 10 residential units in the combined projects at 619 and 701 Ocean Front Walk are being used by Snapchat Inc., primarily for office and not residential uses," alleged the complaint.

Parking spaces that were supposed to be available to the community were also removed, according to the complaint.

The friction with the neighbors and the unusual office arrangement provide a revealing window into the rapid growth at Snapchat, which has become one of the most popular apps among teens, even as its operations have remained closely guarded by the company's penchant for secrecy and its Los Angeles home base, hundreds of miles away from most of its internet rivals.

When an inspector toured the property in May, escorted by a lawyer, he noted a kitchen, a shower, and a "bedroom with a bed and closet with clothing." Alongside it were "several docking stations for computers used for commercial services." Another case-management form notes that one condo included at least eight desks set up.

The condo units appear to be zoned as "live-work" spaces, which means that Snapchat would be allowed to use the apartments for work. But the units must also have a resident, and it's unclear who is "living" in the Snapchat office.

The furniture was added to make it look like someone was living there in compliance, according to the ex-Snapchatter, but no one ever did.

Instead, the perk of working in one of these vacation-condo-style apartments meant that Snapchat employees would hit the beach and then shower off in the bathroom. For people working late or on odd shifts, there was a bed to nap on. The employees worked around the fake photos on the walls and ignored the hangers in the closets.

On June 15, the inspector closed the case for the LA Department of Building and Safety and referred it to the Los Angeles housing department.

Based in Venice, the $18 billion company has struggled to build its real-estate empire to match the pace of its growth. Snapchat built its campus by expanding into small office buildings throughout the eclectic neighborhood, instead of planting its roots in a corporate office park, as its rivals up in Silicon Valley have.

That sprawl, though, has presented its challenges, as shown by the inspections spurred by worried neighbors.

Its expansion hasn't slowed, though, and the company recently signed a contract to expand out of Venice by taking up space at the Santa Monica airport.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat's CEO wore the company's secret-camera sunglasses in public — and nobody noticed

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Snapchat is funding a new online magazine called "Real Life" that will publish "essays, arguments, and narratives about living with technology."

Media outlets have been quick to call Real Life an example of Snapchat "expanding its media empire" or even a play to get more ad revenue. 

But the truth is actually much simpler. The real reason Snapchat is funding Real Life is because of its close connection with one person: Nathan Jurgenson.

Jurgenson is the editor-in-chief of Real Life and also a researcher at Snapchat, where he's worked for three years while living in Brooklyn (Snapchat is headquartered in Los Angeles). 

"Three years ago, Snapchat offered to support the work I do as a sociologist, primarily applying social theory to social media," writes Jurgenson on the Real Life website. He notes that Snapchat has funded an annual conference he started in New York called Theorizing the Web"without asking for any editorial input or control."

Jurgenson confirmed to Tech Insider that he and his team of writers for Real Life will have full editorial independence from Snapchat. (No other writers for the site are employed by the company.) Real Life, and by extension Snapchat, will pay writers for essays and not show ads to readers.

Or as Jurgenson puts it, "The support [from Snapchat] means we can focus on writers and writing rather than clicks and shares."

He told TI that he plans to publish essays about Snapchat on Real Life, which should come as no surprise given that's what got him hired by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel personally three years ago.

An early advisor to Snapchat

Jurgenson's history with Snapchat can be traced back to an essay he published in The New Inquiry in 2013 called "Pics and It Didn't Happen." 

"The tension between experience for its own sake and experience we pursue just to put on Facebook is reaching its breaking point," the essay began. "That breaking point is called Snapchat."

The essay caught the attention of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, who brought Jurgenson on as a researcher and advisor to the company. It wasn't long before Jurgenson's concepts about the state of social media started appearing in Spiegel's public rhetoric about Snapchat.

One particular theory of Jurgenson's, which he coined as "digital dualism," struck a cord with Spiegel early on.

"Digital dualists believe that the digital world is 'virtual' and the physical world 'real'"wrote Jurgenson in 2011. "I am proposing an alternative view that states that our reality is both technological and organic, both digital and physical, all at once. We are not crossing in and out of separate digital and physical realities, ala The Matrix, but instead live in one reality, one that is augmented by atoms and bits."

The same kind of worldview is easy to spot in Spiegel's early speeches about the company, like this one from 2014:

"Snapchat says that we are not the sum of everything we have said or done or experienced or published – we are the result. We are who we are today, right now. We no longer have to capture the 'real world' and recreate it online – we simply live and communicate at the same time."

While at Snapchat, Jurgenson has quietly published a few essays on the company blog like "The Frame Makes the Photograph" and "Temporary Social Media." His name appears on a Snapchat patent for the app's geofilters alongside Spiegel's.  

Besides managing his Theorizing the Web conference every year, he's also remained a contributing editor at The New Inquiry, where he's published long essays about heady concepts like "the deep infiltration of digital information into our lives."

At his new Real Life website, you can expect similar kinds of philosophical essays, not the easily digestible, playful content you see from publishers in Snapchat Discover.

"It won’t be a news site with gadget reviews or industry gossip," Jurgenson says on the site. "It will be about how we live today and how our lives are mediated by devices."

In short, more words and fewer selfie filters.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat's CEO wore the company's secret-camera sunglasses in public — and nobody noticed

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NOW WATCH: How to Snapchat from over 20,000 feet — as told by the Everest climbers that just did it

As the advertising world descends on the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this weekend, Truffle Pig will be toasting its anniversary.

At last year's Cannes, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, and (now former) Daily Mail US CEO Jon Steinberg held a press conference on the Daily Mail's yacht to launch their joint ad agency — Truffle Pig.

All three companies are equity owners in the agency, which is led by Alexander Jutkowitz, who is the CEO of another agency, Group SJR.

Truffle Pig was described back then as a blend between a content-marketing agency and a social agency. It aims to combine the reach and nuances of the Daily Mail's and Snapchat's audiences with the advertising and content-producing expertise from WPP's agency staffers.

Speaking to Business Insider the day before Cannes 2016, Truffle Pig President Paul Marcum, who joined in October, explained how the agency has come a long way from the concept announced at the festival last year.

Truffle Pig now has 10 full-time employees, plus 20 employees from Group SJR that are deployed on behalf of its clients. Roles range from planners, writers, account managers, video producers, and illustrators. Marcum describes the ideal Truffle Pig staffer as a hybrid between a journalist and a media-agency planner who understands how to best distribute content across the web.

The agency has around 10 clients — on a mix of retained contracts and projects — from a range of sectors, including NBCUniversal, Tiffany & Co., Ford Canada, and Verve Mobile.

So what does Truffle Pig actually do? Broadly speaking, it creates content that is designed to be shared — ranging from sponsored Snapchat Stories, to videos on other platforms that aren't backed by advertising spend, and illustrations shared on other social channels.

"Our role is not to interrupt, it's to engage ... our content needs to earn a place in your Facebook feed, or Nuzzel, or Snapchat. Ultimately the more engaging the content, the less [the client needs to] pay, the more efficient it will be," Marcum said.

Despite Truffle Pig's ownership structure, it isn't contracted to only create content for Snapchat or the Daily Mail: "I don't think any of our investors think we can run a successful business forever if you just act as an extension of their media sales and engagement with agencies. Our investors work with other agencies as well — and they should. We have the independence to use all advertising channels."

However, the benefit of having the Daily Mail and Snapchat as investors is the expertise it can tap into. And at a senior level, Truffle Pig regularly meets with the Daily Mail online publisher Martin Clarke and Snapchat's US head of creative strategy, Greg Wacks.

The view from a client

Right now, Truffle Pig is the sole agency producing all the Snapchat content for NBCUniversal's female-focused channel, Oxygen.

Marcum said: "Every day we are an extension of their editorial team and marketing team. One day we could be adapting a new story on their blog for Snapchat, another day we may be promoting something that is coming up on air."

One of the Truffle Pig-created Snapchat Stories for Oxygen

Adam Zeller, vice president of social media from NBCUniversal's Bravo and Oxygen Media, told Business Insider that at the turn of the year, Oxygen had three agencies pitching to create social content for the channel.

Zeller was impressed that Truffle Pig turned up to the pitch with ready-made Snapchat content — but also that it had a closer relationship to Snapchat than any other agency.

He said: "We have many relationships with other social networks but we had not got to know Snapchat in the same way. To have that entrée to people at Snapchat was another check in the 'pros' column."

Truffle Pig essentially being an extension of Snapchat appears to be paying off: Zeller said Oxygen's Snapchat content averages a 93% completion rate. With many of Oxygen's Snapchat videos lasting around a minute, it suggests Truffle Pig — on this client at least — is creating the kind of content people like to watch.

The next test for Truffle Pig will be to continue winning clients for work that extends beyond its Snapchat (or Daily Mail) expertise. As a small organization compared to other social-media or content agencies, that might take a little more time.

Zeller says he "would not rule out" using Truffle Pig on other channels, but adds that Oxygen also employs other agencies that specialize on Instagram or "more holistic" social media.

"But they have that potential to grow to that organization ... I've been impressed with the level of service," Zeller added.

SEE ALSO: We found out what's going on with Truffle Pig — the ad agency Snapchat, WPP, and The Daily Mail launched at Cannes

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NOW WATCH: Billboards are going to start tracking you using your phone

Good morning. Here's everything you need to know in the world of advertising today.

1. It's Cannes Lions week. Keep up to date with all the action with our Facebook Live reports.

2. One year after launch, we found out what's happening at Truffle Pig. The content agency owned by WPP, Snapchat, and The Daily Mail was launched at Cannes Lions 2015.

3. Snapchat put beds in the lofts it's using as offices, but neighbors suspect nobody lives there.For the last 18 months, Snapchat has been inspected by the city of Los Angeles for its use of the Thornton Lofts apartment spaces, which the company uses as offices.

4. Facebook's genre-breaking 'Canvas' ads show why the social network is a force to be reckoned with.It's a great example of how Facebook's formidable tech expertise can translate into the kind of advertising revenue that keeps its market cap at a healthy $323 billion.

5. Snapchat's CEO wore the company's secret-camera sunglasses in public — and nobody noticed.In August, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel was pictured wearing a very different pair of sunglasses from his usual ones while on vacation in Corsica with his girlfriend, the model Miranda Kerr.

6. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer increased spending after secretly agreeing with investors to cut costs. On average, Yahoo's costs went up 21% in the first two quarters after the deal, compared to the previous year's 6% increase.

7. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are crushing Viacom's business. The parent company of media properties such as Paramount Pictures and MTV, slashed its forecast for its coming quarter due to the disappointing release of the new movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows."

8. Twitter advertisers can now get more stats on how their videos are performing, Adweek reports. New stats include completion rate and viewability.

9. A UK programmatic publisher alliance is struggling to launch, Digiday reports.Symmachia, led by the Association of Online Publishers, has failed to come to fruition after 15 months.

10. Pro-Trump PAC spending on TV and radio has quadrupled to $2 million, AdAge reports. Spending has jumped in just two weeks.

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Snapchat geofilters let you put artwork, names, logos, and other designs over messages in the app. The catch is that geofilters only work in certain locations and, in some cases, are only visible for a specific duration of time.

Geofilters are commonly used for saying that you're in a specific city or neighborhood. Recently people have started making their own geofilters for more creative use cases, like proms and birthday parties.

How's what you need to know about creating and submitting your own geofilter to Snapchat.

There are 2 kinds of geofilters: free "community" geofilters and more customizable "on-demand" geofilters you have to pay for.

Community geofilters can be submitted by anyone and are meant to showcase neighborhoods and cities. They can't feature any logos or trademarks and are usually visible in the app for a long period of time.

"Artists and designers are encouraged to create and submit a free Community Geofilter for their city, university, a local landmark, or another public location," Snapchat says on its website. "No brand logos allowed."

You have to follow Snapchat's design rules to have a geofilter approved.

Twitter is ramping up its video efforts. 

The company is rolling out a new video-only section of its app, which users will be able to launch when they click on a video in their timelines, according to Recode. Twitter will be able to recommend other videos within the video section of the app.  

Twitter is also making changes to video app Vine, which it acquired in 2012. Vine users will now be able to attach 140-second videos to their posts, with the original six-second video acting as a "trailer," Vine announced in a Medium post. Previously, users could only record and post six seconds of video on Vine. 

Vine stars will now be able to make money off the app: users can take advantage of Twitter Amplify, the company's video ad service, to run ads before Vine videos, according to Recode. 

Twitter's latest efforts show that the company has not only noticed the huge shift toward video, but realizes Twitter is not exactly the first app people think of for creating and sharing video. And this isn't the first time Twitter has expanded its video capabilities: The company bought live-streaming service Periscope in 2015, reportedly for somewhere between $75 and $100 million.

But now, it's up against stiff competition from Facebook and Snapchat.

Facebook has recently ramped up its video efforts, revamping its own broadcast product, Live, in April and adding a hub to find other live streams. In January, Facebook announced that users were watching 100 million hours of video each day, and Facebook exec Nicola Mendelsohn recently said that the "year-on-year decline of text" means Facebook could be shifting to an all-video newsfeed. 

Twitter also has to watch out for Snapchat, which now has more daily active users than Twitter at 150 million. Snapchat just redesigned its Discover section to be more "visually rich" like Instagram's feed, offering its publishers the option to display their content in larger tiles and showing ads that autoplay in between friends' stories. 

As Twitter lags behind on video, there's no telling if this latest push can help it catch up to apps who are already doing it well. But as the company faces inner turmoil, is losing out on advertisers and struggles to attract new users, everything helps. 

SEE ALSO: The Hyperloop may be coming to Russia

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Teens growing up today have never had to wait to catch up on the news. A quick Google search is all they need to find out what their favorite sports team or celebrity is up to. 

But they don't solely search for news they're curious about, they also regularly check different apps to stay up to date on current events.

We know from recent research that teens ages 13-18 who are part of Generation Z are spending nearly nine hours a day consuming entertainment media. And believe it or not, a chunk of that time is spent on checking the news.

Through speaking with a few teens, Tech Insider discovered that they aren't going to specific news sites to pick and choose articles to read, but rather checking certain apps where the news has been preselected for them. 

And no, not Facebook — the majority of teens we spoke with said they rely on Snapchat and Twitter.

"My favorite Snapchat story is the Cosmo one because they’re usually relat[ed] to feminism, and today for example, it had a story about the [Stanford] rape case," Isabella, 15, tells Tech Insider in a text message. "Every single one of my friends reads it too in the morning."

If it's something particularly interesting, Isabella says she'll send it to one of her friends using the messaging function in the Snapchat app. She tells TI that she also checks the BuzzFeed Snapstory every day.

However, she says she does not have a Twitter or Facebook account, and can't remember the last time she picked up a newspaper. "Very rarely, I’ll read the newspaper over my mom’s shoulder for a few minutes before I get bored," Isabella tells TI. 

It's not really surprising that she doesn't read the newspaper — young people rank lowest among daily newspaper readers.

Isabella isn't alone. According to survey results made public by Variety, 44% of Snapchatters who use the Live Story and Discover features do so at least once a day. And 30% of users use the app as their primary means of getting information about the 2016 Presidential Campaign. 

In addition to Snapchat, some teens still opt for more traditional methods of news consumption, including watching TV. Thomas, 14, tells TI he likes to watch the nightly news to stay up-to-date because it has photos and videos that grab his attention.

"I do follow many news sources on Twitter and Snapchat [as well]," he adds, but "unless I get a notification when I am bored, I won’t look at them because I am usually busy doing something else."

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Nora hasn't completely ditched the old methods of accessing news either. "I read the newspaper sometimes in the morning, about once a week," she says. But she admits that she gets the bulk of her news online, finding it on Facebook or other social media sites, like (you guessed it) Snapchat or Instagram.

Using social media as a source for news consumption comes with its pros and cons. On one hand, social media offers the speed and accessibility for news to break quickly. But on the other, anyone can post any information for the public to see without it being verified or fact-checked, which can sometimes lead to the truth being misconstrued, like in a game of telephone.

President Obama used Twitter to announce his 2012 candidacy, and news stories like Osama bin Laden's death or the announcement of Prince William's engagement to Kate Middleton first surfaced on the site as well. Last December, when reports of a shooting in San Bernardino, California, came out, Snapchat created a live story that launched the app into the breaking news industry. 

But there are limits on what these social media services can provide in the way of news. Tweets are limited to 140 characters in length, nowhere near enough space to tell an entire story. Thus, false reports and news can run rampant. Many a celebrity, including Justin Bieber, have been reported dead on social media only to tweet out later to their fans that the rumors were false.

Other stories have spread like wildfire only to turn out to be false shortly thereafter. Back in 2010, rapper Sean Combs aka P. Diddy, tweeted that LeBron James had signed with the Knicks, a rumor that was not true but that many people on Twitter believed.

Diddy later took to Twitter to admit it was only a rumor he started.

Still, the risk of inaccuracy hasn't stopped teens like Laura, 15, from getting most of their breaking news information through social media apps like Twitter or Snapchat. Laura says she checks her Snapstories — which mainly come from verified news organizations like CNN or BuzzFeed — as well as Twitter every day. She also says she shares the news she finds interesting with her friends.

"I just shared a link with my friends in a group text that we have a couple of days ago, [it was] regarding the Stanford rape case and we discussed it," she tells TI. The ease with which news can be shared on social platforms is yet another reason why they've become so popular. Half of social media users share what they've read, according to a Pew research study.

So it turns out, teens today aren't spending nearly half of their waking hours staring at the screens only to send photos of themselves to their friends with Snapchat's latest filter. They're using their phones to stay connected to the world, each other, and up-to-date on current events in a way no generation before them ever has. 

SEE ALSO: Here's how Snapchat makes money

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NOW WATCH: Teens reveal their favorite apps and the winner is clear

Imagine driving directions showing up over the road in front of you, or assembly instructions floating above the Ikea furniture you are putting together.

This is the promise of augmented reality, and Snapchat has already taken an early lead in the area.

Augmented reality is when graphics are projected into a physical scene, "augmenting" what is already there.

Microsoft is developing goggles called HoloLens, and Google is developing room-scanning technology with its Project Tango, but both companies are in the development stage.

Snapchat has already monetized the technology.

It may seem silly at first. Filters in Snapchat let users turn their head into a Doritos Locos taco or pour a container of Gatorade over their head. Still, it takes augmented-reality technology to a place it hasn't been before.

Snapchat is evolving beyond just "another social media platform" and could be headed to be the first "social augmented reality platform," Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, said in a note to clients on Tuesday.

"Snapchat uses facial recognition technology to create a live and interactive image the user can play with before snapping the final picture," he added.

It's not as ambitious as the tech Microsoft and Google are working on, but it's already widely available to consumers and advertisers.

Snapchat reaches 41% of millennials each day in the US, and users spend an average of 20 seconds playing with a sponsored filter. Compare that with a video ad on YouTube that users can skip after five seconds and you can see how powerful Snapchat's technology is.

The Gatorade filter created for the Super Bowl is a great example.

"The Lens was a massive success, yielding over 165 million views on Snapchat, and a ripple effect felt across every social platform,"the company says on its website.

"The Gatorade Lens made an already strong brand even more preferred."

Peck sees the technology going further than just selfies and Gatorade. Instead of scanning a code on a cereal box to enter a contest, imagine holding up Snapchat and watching the Trix rabbit jump out of the box to tell you that you have won.

Or maybe after scanning an ad for the local aquarium you could see the fish swimming as if they were actually behind the sign.

It doesn't stop on your smartphone. Evan Spiegel, CEO of the company, has been spotted wearing prototype augmented-reality sunglasses, presumably based in part on technology Snapchat gained when it bought a company called Vergence Labs. The company has been hiring talent from Microsoft, Google, Qualcomm, and Nokia, which could be a move to further its augmented-reality tech, Peck said.

Snapchat has missed the monetization mark before, but the company is focusing on advertisers now and offers higher engagement potential than other platforms. Augmented reality is an exciting new realm in the tech realm, and Snapchat is crushing the competition.

"Snapchat has tapped into an unaddressed aspect of human behavior that other platforms haven't, creating a rare opportunity in the social media / messaging app ecosystem," Peck said.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat might one day make a profit thanks to a former investment banker

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NOW WATCH: How to Snapchat from over 20,000 feet — as told by the Everest climbers that just did it

Have you ever wondered what things are actually like behind the scenes at the nation’s best-known residence?

Well, you can now find out thanks to First Lady Michelle Obama, courtesy of her brand new Snapchat account. That’s right, the first lady has hopped on the Snapchat bandwagon — giving us yet more proof that Snapchat is only getting more popular.

Mrs. Obama, according to her press secretary Joanna Rosholm, decided to join Snapchat in an effort to engage and communicate more directly with young people. Followers of the First Lady on Snapchat can expect to find Snaps from behind the scenes of the White House, out on the campaign trail, and wherever else the First Lady finds herself on a daily basis.

Her upcoming trip to Liberia, Morrocco, and Spain as part of the Let Girls Learn imitative will be the focus of her Snaps in the short term, where she will be joined by none other than Freida Pinto and Meryl Streep as part of a Snapchat story throughout the trip.

Snapchat is but the latest addition to the First Lady’s impressive social media following, a tool that she uses brilliantly to engage and communicate with the country. In her first day on Snapchat we have the First Lady taping an appearance for Ellen, and taking a drive in a car with James Corden for Carpool Karaoke among other things — not bad for a first day. Anyone want to take bets on how long before she ropes the president into a Snap or two?

But beyond her public appearances and remaining first lady obligations, we look forward to seeing what Mrs. Obama has in store for us. Her desire to continue to engage and utilize her vast social following once her run in the White House has concluded has been well documented, and now we can add Snapchat to the list of places where Mrs. Obama can be found.

SEE ALSO: Teens are getting almost all of their news from Snapchat and Twitter these days

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NOW WATCH: An exercise scientist reveals exactly how long you need to work out to get in great shape

When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, critics howled. How could Mark Zuckerberg be so crazy as to pay that much money for a company that only had 13 employees and one little app?

Four years later, he's been proven right. Instagram has shown the kind of up-and-to-the-right user growth people love, and passed 500 million users on Tuesday, up from 400 million a mere 10 months ago.

But there's a cloud on the horizon. In the blog post announcing 500 million users, Instagram said that "more than 80 percent" live outside the US. That means about 100 million users in the US. (Instagram says it's got more than 100 million.) Last September, when Instagram boasted about passing 400 million users, it said that "more than 75 percent" lived outside the US — in other words, about 100 million in the US.

Why the stall? The most likely reason is that US teens are increasingly turning to Snapchat, which just passed Instagram in AppAnnie's ranking of amount of time spent in each app.

THE NEXT GOLD RUSH: Mobile advertising

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On Twitter and Facebook, celebrities get a blue checkmark. On Snapchat, they get an emoji.

Since November 2015, Snapchat has been quietly verifying celebrities, bands, and sports teams that use its app. It calls these verified accounts "Official Stories." When you follow a famous person on Snapchat, you'll know they're verified if they have an emoji to the right of their name.

And yes, celebrities get to pick their own emojis.

Being "Official" on Snapchat isn't as glamorous as you may think, but it does come with a couple of perks.

More exposure

The biggest perk Snapchat gives celebrities like DJ Khaled and Kim Kardashian (who own the 🔑 and 🍑 emojis, respectively) is better exposure in its app.

Snapchat has long been criticized for its lack of discovery; it's basically impossible to find someone in the app's search box unless you know their account name.

Searching for official accounts is a lot easier.

If a celebrity or sports team is verified by Snapchat, their account is suggested as you search under a separate Official Stories banner. And you don't need to know their account name, just their actual name. That helps for accounts like Justin Bieber's since his account handle is "rickthesizzler."

Lately Snapchat has taken the additional exposure one step further by auto-suggesting other Official Stories to follow under another's yellow ghost code. If you scan an Official Story's code with your phone's camera in Snapchat, a list of other verified accounts to follow will pop up underneath.

Collaborators

Normal Snapchat accounts can only be logged in from one phone at a time.

Official Stories have a "collaborator" feature baked into the app, Snapchat confirmed to Tech Insider. It lets multiple people add or remove snaps from the main account's story.

This collaboration feature is the reason DJ Khaled can post a video of himself with his selfie camera immediately followed by a shot of him performing in a stadium from another perspective. It's also how NBA team accounts can easily hop around from different vantage points during games.

Snapchat's low-key relationship with celebrities

For now, Snapchat appears to be taking a relatively conservative approach to wooing famous people.

The hot messaging app will occasionally invite big name celebrities to visit its Los Angeles headquarters (like the time Kim Kardashian face swapped with the "guy who invented face swap") and provide technical support when needed. But that's largely the extent of Snapchat's relationship with the celebrities who use its platform.

Many of its competitors in the social media space, by contrast, actively court celebrities and have entire teams dedicated to maintaining relationships with them. Facebook has paid celebrities and media companies over $50 million to produce live videos on its network, according to The Wall Street Journal. Both Twitter and Facebook offer entirely different apps designed specifically for public figures with lots of followers.

While plenty of celebrities and public figures use Snapchat, "Official Story" accounts make up a tiny percentage of the app's 150 million daily users.

The main reason the rollout of Official Stories has been so slow is that a few Snapchat employees ultimately decide who to verify on a case-by-case basis. "They just subjectively pick whoever they want," said one source with knowledge of the company's process.

Snapchat declined to go into detail about its criteria for verifying accounts or provide a master list of its Official Story accounts.

One thing that surprisingly won't definitely get you an official Snapchat account is lots of followers. In interviews with TI, multiple Snapchatters with thousands of followers expressed frustration at not being able to get their accounts verified.

"It drips with exclusivity,"Michael Platco, a non-verified Snapchatter with 250,000 followers, told TI. "I mean... there are only so many emojis."

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To the surprise of few, social media eats up the most time spent on mobile devices.

The latest Global Internet Phenomena Report by Sandvine tracked March data from multiple Internet service providers and confirmed that social media is the main traffic driver on the mobile web. The firm measured traffic during the peak hours of 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. and broke out data consumption in terms of upstream consumption, or uploading content, and downstream consumption, or downloading content.

YouTube represented the greatest share of U.S. mobile traffic at 19%, and more people downloaded and streamed content (21%) than uploaded (5%). Based on the study, YouTube remains the go-to destination for video consumption among U.S. mobile users.

Facebook ranked second with a 14% share, though this number does not include WhatsApp and Instagram. Upstream and downstream connections among users stood at 15% and 21%, respectively, which shows people upload and download content on Facebook at a relatively equal rate. And the bandwidth consumed on Facebook should rise in the future as Facebook continues to grow its video offerings and promotes virtual reality content.

Instagram by itself ranked fifth with a 6.3% share of total U.S. mobile traffic, and this should also rise as Facebook promotes the platform more. Interestingly, Facebook would have the largest share at 22% after combining Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Snapchat placed behind Instagram at 5.1%, an impressive feat given the company's youth and size. It also led all messaging apps by beating WhatsApp and Kik. The data consumption numbers of the company, however, are not surprising considering that the platform's primary messaging is videos and photos. And Snapchat's share should also increase as it expands its offerings and attracts more advertisers.

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To the surprise of few, social media eats up the most time spent on mobile devices.

The latest Global Internet Phenomena Report by Sandvine tracked March data from multiple Internet service providers and confirmed that social media is the main traffic driver on the mobile web. The firm measured traffic during the peak hours of 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. and broke out data consumption in terms of upstream consumption, or uploading content, and downstream consumption, or downloading content.

YouTube represented the greatest share of U.S. mobile traffic at 19%, and more people downloaded and streamed content (21%) than uploaded (5%). Based on the study, YouTube remains the go-to destination for video consumption among U.S. mobile users.

Facebook ranked second with a 14% share, though this number does not include WhatsApp and Instagram. Upstream and downstream connections among users stood at 15% and 21%, respectively, which shows people upload and download content on Facebook at a relatively equal rate. And the bandwidth consumed on Facebook should rise in the future as Facebook continues to grow its video offerings and promotes virtual reality content.

Instagram by itself ranked fifth with a 6.3% share of total U.S. mobile traffic, and this should also rise as Facebook promotes the platform more. Interestingly, Facebook would have the largest share at 22% after combining Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Snapchat placed behind Instagram at 5.1%, an impressive feat given the company's youth and size. It also led all messaging apps by beating WhatsApp and Kik. The data consumption numbers of the company, however, are not surprising considering that the platform's primary messaging is videos and photos. And Snapchat's share should also increase as it expands its offerings and attracts more advertisers.

To receive stories like this one directly to your inbox every morning, sign up for the Digital Media Briefing newsletter. Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today.

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Snapchat is soaring in popularity, but that's just the tip of the iceberg for the social media app.

Reports emerged earlier this year that Snapchat has almost 150 million daily active users. Based off these figures, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, estimates that Snapchat's monthly active user base (the standard metric for measuring social platforms) is about 300 million.

This makes Snapchat approximately the same size as Twitter and about 20% of the size of Facebook's core audience.

But Snapchat makes up for this comparatively smaller size with its ability to engage users. According to the BI Intelligence social engagement index, which ranks top social platforms based on time spent per user across mobile and desktop, Snapchat is five times more effective than Twitter and 10 times more effective than LinkedIn at getting users to spend time on the platform on a per-user basis.

Engagement in this case refers to any type of user interaction, activity, or passive content consumption on a platform, and these interactions vary depending on the platform.

Snapchat's ability to spur great user engagement stems from its function as a media hub and a way to privately communicate with friends. Snapchat claims that the average active user spends 25 to 30 minutes on the app every day, according to Bloomberg. 

And these users take advantage of each of the app's different features. Almost 25% of all U.S. Snapchat users say they spend an equal amount of time messaging friends, watching media content through Discover and Live Stories, and following brands, according to a survey by Defy Media and Variety.

To receive stories like this one directly to your inbox every morning, sign up for the Digital Media Briefing newsletter.Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today.

Join the conversation about this story »

Snapchat is soaring in popularity, but that's just the tip of the iceberg for the social media app.

Reports emerged earlier this year that Snapchat has almost 150 million daily active users. Based off these figures, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, estimates that Snapchat's monthly active user base (the standard metric for measuring social platforms) is about 300 million.

This makes Snapchat approximately the same size as Twitter and about 20% of the size of Facebook's core audience.

But Snapchat makes up for this comparatively smaller size with its ability to engage users. According to the BI Intelligence social engagement index, which ranks top social platforms based on time spent per user across mobile and desktop, Snapchat is five times more effective than Twitter and 10 times more effective than LinkedIn at getting users to spend time on the platform on a per-user basis.

Engagement in this case refers to any type of user interaction, activity, or passive content consumption on a platform, and these interactions vary depending on the platform.

Snapchat's ability to spur great user engagement stems from its function as a media hub and a way to privately communicate with friends. Snapchat claims that the average active user spends 25 to 30 minutes on the app every day, according to Bloomberg. 

And these users take advantage of each of the app's different features. Almost 25% of all U.S. Snapchat users say they spend an equal amount of time messaging friends, watching media content through Discover and Live Stories, and following brands, according to a survey by Defy Media and Variety.

To receive stories like this one directly to your inbox every morning, sign up for the Digital Media Briefing newsletter. Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today.

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Today it isn’t just the Snapchat accounts of famous-for-being-famous starlets that are garnering the most attention. Instead, it’s the surgeons behind some of the country’s most impressive cosmetic transformations that are taking the social app by storm. While the ‘Snaps’ themselves might be NSFW, that doesn’t stop hundreds of thousands of viewers who follow these surgeons, all for a glimpse at what happens behind the surgical curtain.

New York’s own Dr. Matthew Schulman, a board-certified plastic surgeon, partakes in the Snapchat trend and was even named as one of International Business Times’ Top 17 Snapchat accounts to follow in 2016. The surgeon, who has been practicing for just about 10 years now, says that he started using social media around four years ago, hoping that it might help spread the word about his practice. It wasn’t until one year ago, and the birth of “Nycplasticsurg,” that Dr. Schulman realized he’d found the key to both increasing business and giving the people what they want. “People still think that Snapchat is how you send nude pictures,” he says, “but now it’s very different.”

Through a combination of professional educational and a touch of personality, Dr. Schulman’s Snapchat account now gets over 100,000 views per story. Procedures that he coins “mommy makeovers,” like tummy tucks or breast augmentations, garner the most attention. Also popular, unsurprisingly, is the Brazilian Butt Lift. Dr. Schulman explained that many of his new patients actually find him through Snapchat, and that most feel an instant familiarity with him and his staff because of it. It also hasn’t been as difficult as one may think to obtain patients’ consent to be recorded.

When asked why they opted in to have their surgeries broadcast to hundreds of thousands of viewers, former patients Sharntai Harris and Michelle Rentas both wanted to pay it forward. After having watched several of Dr. Schulman’s surgeries, both women agreed to being taped on account that they might help others understand the surgical process. And yes, both women did watch their own procedures. Rentas even explained that her family watched in real-time for peace of mind. 

“My family watched the whole thing while they were waiting for me to be done,” she says. “It was like they were right there in the operating room.” Dr. Schulman further elaborated saying, “Normally the family would wait in the waiting room, stress and get anxious, waiting for my nurse to go out and reassure them that things are going well. Now, they’re able to go leave for lunch or walk around, and still follow it live on Snapchat.”

The rules remain: nudity is at its minimum, no faces are shown (aside from the handful of patients willing to do pre and post-surgery Snapchat interviews) and definitely no horsing around. At the end of the day, Dr. Schulman is only showing a small portion of a lengthy, complicated procedure—just, one might say, a snapshot of it.

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Snapchat doesn't make it obvious when someone deletes or blocks you. It's one of the app's many quirks.

Luckily, there is a way to know for sure if someone is no longer following you back. And it's actually pretty easy to check.

SEE ALSO: How to use Kiwi, the hot app that beat out Snapchat for first place in the App Store

If you're wondering whether someone follows you back, tap and hold on their name to see their Snapcode — it's the yellow ghost icon that looks like this:

You can find someone's name by searching for them in the chat section of Snapchat or from your list of friends.

If you mutually follow each other, you'll see their Snapscore.

A person's Snapscore is the total sum of all snaps (photos and videos) they've sent and received in the app.

If they don't follow you, their Snapscore will be hidden.

Facebook has a serious case of Snapchat FOMO.

That much is clear with a feature Facebook announced on Monday called Slideshow. Here's how it works: The Facebook app stitches together photos and videos you've taken in the past 24 hours, adds special effects, and shares a slideshow on your profile.

Sound familiar? That's because it's very similar to Snapchat Stories, which are also compilations of photos and videos taken in the last 24 hours.

Facebook says it began testing the Slideshow feature in its Moments photo sharing app before making it available in a few countries late last year.

If you've taken at least five photos or videos on your phone in the last 24 hours, the Facebook app will prompt you to create a Slideshow at the top of your News Feed. You'll be able to choose from 10 visual themes, like "Nostalgic" and "Playful," that all come with their own animations and soundtracks.

"We all know that people love to snap photos and share what they've been up to on the weekends, whether it's a family gathering, a road trip with friends, or even an epic brunch, and this fun new feature will let you stitch together those special photos into a format that captures the spirit of the event," Facebook said in a statement.

What Facebook won't say is that Slideshow is another attempt to get people sharing their more personal moments on Facebook again. Multiple reports have said that Facebook has seen a decline in original sharing amidst the soaring popularity of links and videos in the News Feed.

In short, people are watching videos and sharing news stories more than they're posting status updates and baby photos.

Snapchat, meanwhile, is becoming the place people go to share their everyday lives with friends and loved ones. (If you don't believe me, just ask a nearby teenager.) 

Facebook's Slideshow feature will be available to all iPhone users starting this week.

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