As you well know by now, Snapchat just rolled out a mega-update to its popular chatting platform and, for the most part, people are pumped about the fun new features this update affords us. There's one small exception, though — lots o' users are asking, "Can I turn off Snapchat Auto-Advance Stories?" Because while spamming your squad with inane voice messages and showering them with cutesy cartoon animal stickers seem to be universally legit, the new Auto-Advance Stories feature is much more divisive.
When Snapchat introduced Stories in 2013, it was kind of big deal. Essentially, it offered users a way to capture their day by stringing together pics and vids taken throughout the course of a day. Unlike regular Snaps, which are single frame and user-to-user specific, Stories show up in slideshow format and are public for all Snapchat friends to see. Of course, per the brevity at Snapchat's core, the Stories still only last for 24 hours before vanishing into the social media graveyard in the sky. To find Stories, you simply swipe right from the camera screen once you login to Snapchat. From there, you can click on Stories from brands, the media, etc. in the Discover section, watch sporting events via Live, or peruse friends' Stories under Recent Updates.
So what's the big deal about Stories under the new Snapchat update? Well, it's a seemingly small change, but one that can be irksome. Let's say you tap on the very first story in your feed of friends. After that friend's Story finishes playing, Snapchat will roll immediately into the Story of your next friend and so on and so forth. To be honest, it's a little hard to tell where one Story ends and another begins.
If you're not a fan of this particular part of the update, you're undoubtedly one of those aforementioned people asking if you can turn off Auto-Advance Stories. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears the answer is no. While one article I came across in my research suggested this new feature was "enabled in settings," I was unable to find anywhere in my settings that allowed me to enable or disable it. (If you find otherwise, Snap me at julieuhgulieuh and clue me in.)
I don't come bearing all bad news, though. Although you can't turn off Snapchat's new Auto-Advance Stories feature, you aren't totally powerless to the change. If you're just not feeling it, you can swipe left to to skip ahead to the next Story or simply pull down to exit.
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