Mapbox helps power Snap Map
By: Bersabel Tadesse
On June 21st, I watched as thousands of people flocked to Stonehenge to witness the sunrise and bring in the first day of summer. A second later, I was in Mecca watching first-hand video of millions making the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Another pan of the map and I saw the bitmoji of a coworker who had chosen to share his location with me — he was in Oahu, Hawaii. I could even explore what was happening in the neighborhoods around me. Snapchat’s release of Snap Map completely changes the way I explore the world, discover content, and connect with friends.
Here’s a look at some of the building blocks that help power Snap Map.
Global architecture
The Mapbox infrastructure is designed to deliver fresh content to hundreds of millions of people on different devices, everywhere in the world. Our global architecture — running Docker containers on AWS, with multiple layers of targeted caching — allows us to autoscale to support trends and spikes in worldwide traffic, so users always see fresh and fast content no matter where they are and what’s going on.
Snapchatters use Snap Map to see what’s happening around the world each day, so ensuring that the map can update in real-time is key.
Vector Maps & Satellite Imagery
Mapbox Studio, our powerful design tool that lets developers customize every layer of their map, was used to help design Snap Map. Snapchat then seamlessly combined their global vector map that was based on Mapbox Outdoors (which includes vector data such as comprehensive terrain, road, label, and POI information) with Mapbox Satellite, our global high resolution satellite imagery layer. Our permissive imagery rights gave Snapchat the ability to further style the satellite imagery to fit their map style.
Our API lets developers create and combine map layers in truly innovative ways.
Pinch to zoom, and go anywhere in the world
Our open source mobile SDKs give developers the freedom to build a totally custom experience, down to the gestures. Every interaction in an app matters from a user experience perspective, so having this type of flexibility is critical.
As you zoom in to see more of what is happening in an area on Snap Map, notice the smooth interactions and camera animation.
Location context and sharing
Reverse geocoding via the Mapbox Geocoding API helps Snapchat properly place Snaps submitted to Our Story as well as Snapchatters’ locations (only if they are choosing to share it!) on the map. Custom GL rendering gave the Snapchat team the tools to build their own heatmaps to visualize these Snaps. Forward geocoding via our Geocoding API also allows Snapchatters to search for specific topics, places and friends on the Map and then instantly be zoomed in to that selection with smooth vector tile rendering.
Our latest OpenGL-based innovations help render these complex layers in a fast, performant way that isn’t taxing on phone battery life or app size.
Congratulations to the amazing engineering, design, and product teams at Snapchat. These creative teams built a truly unique experience, and Snapchat has set a new bar for location-based applications.
