Snapchat Is Turning Into a Huge Interactive Easter Egg Hunt This Weekend

By Sam Blum

Published on 3/30/2018 at 1:00 PM

Courtesy Snap Inc.
Courtesy Snap Inc.

Snapchat, social media's jilted lover that's been quietly begging for your return since Rihanna and Kylie Jenner ditched it, is transforming into an interactive Easter egg hunt this weekend. The app's Snap Map, which shows where your friends are located throughout the world, is getting an Easter-themed makeover starting Friday, March 30 through Sunday, April 1, in what the company is calling the Great Snapchat Egg Hunt! (exclamation point theirs).

Similarly to Google Maps' Mario Kart revamp, Snapchat's egg hunt will transform your neighborhood, at least on your smartphone. Eggs will be plotted throughout your neighborhood, at coffee shops, restaurants, malls, movie theaters, and so forth. Tap any eggs in your vicinity to open a 3-D, rear-facing camera on the back of your phone, then take a picture of the location. Single eggs are worth one point, while golden eggs are worth five. You can accrue a lot of meaningless points here, as Snapchat has plotted 1 million of these virtual tokens throughout the United States and Canada.

There'll be a running leaderboard on the upper right-hand corner of the map, the company notes, so your friends can compare their progress with yours. Taking a picture of an egg doesn't remove it from the map, so you won't be depriving your friends of points if they're playing catch-up. In that sense, it's a bit more egalitarian -- and probably much less dangerous -- than Pokémon Go.

If you're paranoid about Snap monitoring your whereabouts through the game, given recent news about widespread data-mining at Facebook and other large tech firms, the company says geo-location is only shared with your friends. Still, using Ghost Mode is always an option, but that means your score isn't shared with anyone else.

Snapchat's efforts to lure people back after a glut of high-profile users publicly skewered it is natural. Whether 1 million fake Easter eggs peppered throughout local Starbucks and bus stops can help the company is another question.

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Sam Blum is a News Staff Writer for Thrillist. He's also a martial arts and music nerd who appreciates a fine sandwich and cute dogs. Find his clips in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club and Esquire. He's on Twitter @Blumnessmonster.