Snapchat Review

by Misty Hawley

Description

Snapchat is a mobile app that allows you to share moments with your friends. It's simple. Take a picture or video and then modify the image with captions or use your finger to write or draw on your snaps. You then send your "Snaps" as messages to other Snapchat users. You decide how long you want the picture or video to be available to your friends (from 1 second up to 10 seconds). The time starts when the recipient opens the message. After the allowed time expires, so does the image. This is a worry-free way to send your silly or sexy snaps to friends, acquaintances, or strangers. A record of the communication persists but the actual content of the communication does not. The app's mascot is called Ghostface Chillah, a name derived from the rapper Ghostface Killah.

Most Recent Update

SnapChat Stories: allows users to build chains of shared content that can be viewed an unlimited number of times over a 24-hour period. The Stories are shared to all your friends at once, and each piece of content added itself lasts for a full day before disappearing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-ie5_aaHOhE 

Access

Snapchat uses the data plan that you purchase with your smartphone. As long as your data doesn't exceed what is allotted in your plan, Snapchat is a free tool that is available for Android and iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) users. If you do exceed what's allotted in your plan, you could be subject to additional fees by your carrier. To get started, download the app then create an account. The app automatically syncs with your contact list. It then shows you who among your contacts is a Snapchat user.

Sample Usage

What the Tool Does Well

• Full screen camera preview.
• One button control creates an easy transition from picture to video.
• Very easy to add captions and drawings to snaps
• Does allow you to block or delete a user
• Able to see when friends receive and open snaps (time and date).
• Can be set on private to avoid SnapChats from strangers 
• Double tap past received snaps to reply to user 
• Different colors for photo/video snaps 
• Alphabetizes friends by name 

What it Does Poorly

• You can still take a screenshot of the image if you're super fast. The app is supposed to detect when this happens and send notification to the sender but this is not foolproof. Someone else could also take a picture of the image on the phone before the time expires.
• There are ways to work around the time limit. Receivers can use iFunBox, a program that searches for a file and saves it before opening the snap.
• I had no trouble receiving video from iPhone users that included drawings and captions. I, however, was only able to add captions to my video, not drawings. I also couldn't set the length of time for the video.
• Have to press down on screen to view snap/video (for the allotted length) 
• Ways for deleted images to resurface
• Only on iOS or Android devices

What happens when you...

Brands have recently started experiment with SnapChat to market themselves. Here is an example form "16 Handles" a popular frozen yogurt shop in New York.

Additional Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r4237MZIb8g

Snapchat: Solution or Problem?  http://news.yahoo.com/snapchat-solution-problem-211300605.html

Snapchat on Twitter: @snapchat

Competition:

Facebook Poke: Although the interface is a wee bit more complicated than Snapchat’s, all four icons you need are located on a general bottom menu bar, and your Pokes appear directly above. You can't draw over videos or messages. You can only send pokes to people who are your Facebook friends.

iDelete: disables replication of the text or image message and a self-destruct timer ensures that your texts and messages are automatically deleted after a specific amount of time. If your recipient hasn’t yet opened your message, you can delete the text or image from your outbox. You can adjust the Self-Destruct Timer to set for 10, 20 30 or 60 seconds or 2 minutes. The image or text sent is blurred until the recipient taps and holds it, so users can’t capture a screen shot. Can't send a message to multiple people.