# Crowd Surf

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-08-22

crowd-surf, instagram, snap, snap-inc, snapchat, uncategorized

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e37c69e4a795b218d2e2345b662336d0.jpg)

When Snap Inc. announced its [Q2 financial results earlier this month](https://investor.snap.com/news-releases/2017/08-10-2017-210950357), it reported 173 million daily active users – an increase of 21% year-over-year. But this fell short of what was expected. Analysts were expecting [175.2 million DAUs](http://fortune.com/2017/08/10/snap-inc-second-quarter-earnings-shares/). 

(Snap defines a DAU as anyone who opens the Snapchat app during a defined 24 hour period.)

Regardless of your position on this stock, one thing is clear about the company: they are very creative and they continue to innovate.

The company is currently testing a new feature called “[Crowd Surf](https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/14/snapchat-crowd-surf/).” What it does is automatically stitch together related Snapchat Stories from the same location to form seamless videos. 

It made its debut at a concert in San Francisco. The real magic is how Crowd Surf was able to assemble a _continuous_ audio track using an assortment of 10-second Snapchat Stories, all taken from different locations at the concert and all from different users.

[Click here](https://www.fastcodesign.com/90136810/snapchats-latest-trick-edits-crappy-concert-videos-into-something-great) and scroll down for a preview video.

To accomplish all of this, Snap takes a “sound print” of the audio playing in a particular location from people’s Stories. It then filters each of the clips so they sound more alike and autogenerates a stitched together video.

You obviously need a critical mass of users and content for this to work, which is why the feature was introduced at a concert. But it’s certainly a remarkable way of creating valuable content from decentralized user inputs.

I guess the only question is: How long until Instagram copies this?

_Photo by_ [_Yvette de Wit_](https://unsplash.com/photos/NYrVisodQ2M?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/crowd-surf)*