For those sick of being throttled during the second half of each month because they have spent all of their 4G LTE data, Snapchat is giving users more control over the amount of data they consume while using the social network's app.
With Travel Mode enabled, Snapchat's new data-saving feature, the app will only fully load content that the users interact with. Users can tap on the stories and Snaps they want to access similar to the way they see email headers.
Despite the name, Travel Mode, the new data-saving feature will be valuable to those merely moving about in their own cities and neighborhoods. Those with slim data plans and big appetites for digital content may find themselves using the feature whenever they step away from their home or work's Wi-Fi connections.
To flip Travel Mode on, tap on the Snapchat icon then select the Settings option. Tap the Settings menu's Manage Additional Services option then toggle on the Manage menu's Travel Mode slider.
Along with the mobile data-saving feature, Snapchat also brought back the eye icon after removing it for a short while. Nothing has changed with the icon. Tapping the eye icon enables users to see who viewed a Story.
Snapchat also uncuffed emoji usage in the latest update to its app. Users can now fire away freely with the emojis, inserting them anywhere inside their messages as opposed to being forced to chain them all together.
Rounding out the list of updates that followed Travel Mode onto Snapchat, the social networking company gave users the ability to download their profile GIFs as videos. Users could only save the first frame of their profile GIFs before.
The introduction of Travel Mode headlines Snapchat's latest update, at least in part because the social network's app has had trouble in the past with eating away at data behind the scenes.
Vodafone, during its most recent earnings call, revealed a surprising stat about Snapchat users' data consumption in the UK. Vittorio Colao, group chief executive at Vodafone, said he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the stat.
"In the UK, if you take all the messaging apps, so Facebook, WhatsApp, whatever, Google, whatever, 75 percent of the traffic today is Snapchat which means that the upload and the different way of communicating is actually stimulating a lot of usage," stated Colao. "Which is why we're convinced that this—our strategy was right in going into bundling mobile and video."
