Snapchat geofilters: For more than just location

Have an event? Want a unique way to show it off? In need of a last-minute gift?

Whether it’s a big holiday event, a family gathering, or a special occasion, Snapchat users can celebrate with a customized, on-demand Snapchat geofilter.

Geofilters themselves are nothing new. The social media company has featured geofilters for a while for cities like Bradenton and with sponsored content. But Snapchat announced earlier this year the geofilters would become available to everyone, for a price. It’s a fun, easy and relatively inexpensive gift if you know exactly where a person will be to use it and when they will be there.

On Snapchat’s website, users can sign into their accounts and either upload their own design – with specific requirements that can be found below and on Snapchat’s website — or design one using templates provided on the site. Templates are available for parties, weddings, birthdays, businesses and other celebrations.

There are several designs that wouldn’t normally be seen or available by swiping through the traditional filters on Snapchat.

There are options to personalize the templates. Users can chose the font, size and wording of existing text, add a new line of text, add Bitmojis, even select a different color palette.

Next, Snapchat will prompt users to select the dates and time they want the geofilter to be available. The site will then direct users to a map where they’ll designate the area for it to appear.

According to Techcrunch.com, the minimum size for these geofilters is 5,000 square feet and the minimum amount of time the it can exist is 30 minutes. Looking for something with a little more range? On-demand geofilters can be spread as far as 5,000,000 square feet.

Prices vary, so play around with the site and see what options work best. For a template created to run for about an hour with a range of approximately 20,000 square feet, it cost about $5.

Artists looking for the chance to add their design to the social media platform or just someone with design skills that has spare time can also create upload their own design.

After creating a design, save it as a web-optimized, transparent PNG file. The file must be under 300KB and be 1080 pixels wide with a height of 1920 pixels, according to Snapchat’s guidelines. The design must be approved by Snapchat.

A template can be downloaded from Snapchat’s site for either Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.

However, there are limitations to what you can include like hashtags and logos, but those are well-laid out in the guidelines.

Make a holiday geofilter at Snapchat.com/geofilters.

This story was originally published December 23, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Snapchat geofilters: For more than just location."