Snapchat may soon let you view videos without holding your finger on the screen

At Recode’s Code Conference, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel announced something dedicated Snapchat users are probably going to like.

Instead of pressing and holding the screen to watch video, Snapchat is working on a way to get video playing straight away. It’s not known if users will need to tap the screen (or a ‘play’ button) or if videos will just start playing as you view them.

One of the reasons Snapchat employs a press-and-hold scheme for video playback is that it ensures engagement. Changing that model is risky as Snapchat wouldn’t actually know you’re viewing video.

Spiegel may be confident Snapchat’s size means they no longer need to be sure you’re watching; he says the service has 100 million daily active users, 65 percent of whom upload video.

As for live-streaming, Spiegel says Snapchat is “not working on anything right now.”

Image credit: Shutterstock; Focal Point