Casey Newton, writing for The Verge:

To create a custom Story, tap the new “Create Story” icon in the top-right corner of the Stories screen. Give your Story a name, and then invite the friends you want to participate — no matter where in the world they live. You can also invite all nearby Snapchat users to participate. Snapchat will create a 1-block geofence around your current location; those Stories can only be seen and contributed to by your friends and, if you like, friends of friends.

Seth Stevenson, writing for The Wall Street Journal, on Snapchat’s new hardware product, “Spectacles.”

What initially appears to be a normal pair of sunglasses turns out to be Spectacles, the first hardware product from Snap Inc., as the firm has been newly christened (Spiegel is refreshing the company name because its offerings now go beyond the Snapchat app). When you slip Spectacles on and tap a button near the hinge, it records up to 10 seconds of video from your first-person vantage. Each new tap records another clip.

They’re hideous and I expect to see them at concerts in the not so distant future.

Snapchat is currently raising more money at around a $20 billion valuation.

TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources that Snapchat is raising yet more financing at around a $20 billion valuation. Sources with knowledge of the deal say the social media giant is in the process of a round of about $200 million.

I didn’t really get Snapchat until I started to use it more. There’s something freeing about the app that separates it from the other social apps I use. I think knowing that things you post aren’t forcing themselves into your followers’ feeds (freeing you from being worried about spamming them), and knowing it’ll disappear within a day (freeing you from feeling embarrassed something is up forever), and being able to post quick random videos, makes the app oddly more sticky than I would have expected.