• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

To further engage teenage consumers, Snapchat recently acquired a calendar-based app called Saturn, which is designed to help students plan out their school schedules while being able to share them with other users. 

According to Saturn’s App Store listing, the app is currently available to over 17,000 high schools across the U.S., which covers almost 80 percent of high schoolers in the country. Whereas Snapchat is used by over half of the teens in the region. 

Joining forces is a strategic move by Snap to deepen its place in teens’ digital lives. The social media company has yet to disclose specific details about the deal, but did state that buying Saturn may inspire the launch of future calendar-focused features on the platform. 

In line with Snapchat’s “Snap Map” -- an in-app display that gives users a sense of where one another is geographically at any given time -- Saturn makes it easy for high school and college students to track each other through calendar information, especially with built-in knowledge regarding block periods and extracurricular activities. 

Combining Saturn and Snap Map has the potential to make planning meet-ups more seamless for younger Snapchatters. 

For now, Saturn will continue to run as a stand-alone app.

However, per the acquisition, almost 30 of the company’s full-time employees are slated to join Snap. It is likely that Saturn will soon directly become part of the Snapchat app.