The image messaging and multimedia mobile application service Snapchat has been blatantly copied by Facebook and its properties. To give itself an advantage, it's launching a feature that its merciless competitors don't have.
It's called 'Story search'. Using the feature, users can search for specific locations, events or any keywords in order to find Snaps of those.
So for example, if users search for a specific event, they'll see Snaps of others. And to preserve privacy, Snaps won't be available for others to search by default. In order to have them searchable, users need to put them in 'Our Story' in order to be found.
According to Snapchat on its March 31st, 2017 post:
Snapchat launched Stories back in 2013. Since then, the feature has been one of the core that differentiate itself from almost any others in the competition. As more users started using it, Stories evolved from singular, personal perspective to include collective narratives created by its entire community.
What makes Snapchat's Stories unique is that it gives users the ability to see things around the world through the eyes of its community.
This is where the inevitable happened. Facebook as the giant among social media, saw Stories as something that is indeed interesting. After failing to acquire Snapchat, the social giant started copying Snapchat's core features, and included them into its products.
Facebook's and Instagram’s Stories are almost identical to Snapchat's Snaps. But with Snapchat launching Stories search, it is letting users search for relevant Stories, making them more likely to turn to Snapchat when they want live video of specific things. It's just a way for Snapchat to compete and get back on track, or at least to even the odds.