Snapchat’s Discover platform is about to get more social media exposure. Discover features content from a select group of 16 Snapchat partners including CNN, Vice, and VOX; until now, said partners have been unable to link directly to their pages on social channels such as Facebook and Twitter. That’s about to change. One result is that companies will be able measure social media user engagement relating to Snapchat articles and videos.

So what does it mean for the future?

In an email to Cynopsis Digital, Jason Klein, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of the analytics company ListenFirst Media, weighed in on Snapchat’s move. “It’s a great move for Snapchat as it allows their publishing partners to leverage Facebook and Twitter to drive new viewers of their content at Snapchat – particularly when the jury is still out about just how valuable a deal it is for publishing partners,” he wrote.

“From an analytics standpoint, it’s quite valuable to companies like ours because, to date, Snapchat has kept all their data close to the vest. Now, we’ll have the ability to find proxies for Snapchat engagement through the analysis that our platform performs on Facebook and Twitter. The real story, though, is that for Snapchat to continue to grow its advertising business, they’ll need to start making more data available directly to advertisers and analytics partners to understand and value these opportunities. All one needs to do is take a look at Facebook or Twitter to understand that making data available to ecosystem partners helps all parties understand how to maximize the value of advertising opportunities. I hope this is the beginning of Snapchat’s willingness to play outside their walled garden.”