Today, Snapchat announced a new closed beta rest of Snapchat brand profiles, and this will provide more specific ways for brands to connect with Snapchatters in-app.

In light of Snapchat Brand Profiles, Snapchat explains: “Brand Profiles offer a permanent home for brands on Snapchat, [bringing] various brand experiences for Snapchatters together into a single home on our service. With 229 million Snapchatters using the app daily, this real estate for our partners is especially important in a world where our millennial and Gen Z audiences can be hard to reach and build deep, authentic relationships with on many platforms.”

As you can see, the main focus of Snapchat brand profiles is bringing the different brand elements now available in the app into a consolidated presence.

More details about Snapchat brand profiles:

Brand profiles will showcase the following:

• Branded AR Lenses: as brands will have the ability to save and showcase any Lenses they’ve created or commissioned on their profile, this helps to maximize the value of their promotional tie-in AR experiences.
• Story posts: Brands will also be able to showcase their own public Story on their brand profile, this will give fans another perspective via the app
• Native Store: Brand profiles will also include an optional Store experience, and this will enable Snapchatters to browse besides purchasing items directly within the app.
• Highlights: They will enable brands to showcase collections of their best public Snaps, photos, Stories, and videos right on their profile.
  Snapchat explained: “This is the best way for Snapchatters who aren’t familiar with a brand to get to know who they are”

This new addition of Snapchat brand profiles is just another step towards expanding the scope of what Snapchat is, even though the platform always does so within the confines of the Snap experience, providing more ways for brands to showcase how they’re utilizing Snap’s various tools, as opposed to pushing alternate brand functionalities into the app.

However, the only exception to this is the Shop option, anyhow, Snapchat has been slowly integrating more eCommerce and on-platform shopping options for some. So from a user perspective, it is not a huge stretch to include a direct link to a native shopping experience in-app.

Additionally, Snapchat mentions that brands also approved for official brand profiles will also get access to new web and mobile management tools n order to help them. Snapchat says: “…collaborate with team members, manage content, and review analytics. Similar to Public Profiles, brands can now see audience demographics and interests for those who view their Stories.”

Snapchat has been slowly expanding its analytics tools and features with its Creator Profiles which was launched last year also getting access to more features.

On the other hand, Snapchat brand profiles look somehow similar to Creator Profiles, which are also differentiated from regular user profiles in the app.

Generally, Snapchat brand profiles look to be an attractive addition to the Snapchat experience, which will surely hold interest for brands looking to connect with younger audiences.

However, Snapchat brand profiles are not available for everyone, only a small group of brands will be approved to join the beta test, but Snapchat is planning to expand this feature to more businesses in the upcoming months.