Many of you have probably heard of Snapchat. The tool has been around since 2011, though it was originally named "Pictaboo," and was created to send pictures or videos that disappear. I first heard of it when my little cousin was told she couldn’t have a Facebook, so she said “That’s OK. I have Snapchat instead!” It's now reportedly the third most popular social network among millenials.
Snapchat has technically been around since 2011, it didn’t start gaining momentum until 2013. Today I’m just going to give you the basics of how it works and why it’s used. If you're a parent, your kids are likely using Snapchat, and it’s imperative that you understand it and how it works.
How Does Snapchat Work?
Let's say I have Snapchat on my phone. Through the app, I take a picture or video of my cat snoozing on my bed. I then have two options. I can either share that picture with “my story,” which is kind of like a newsfeed where my followers can view it for up to 24 hours (or however long it is set for).
The other option is I can send it to individual people so that I only share the picture of my cat with, for example, my wife and a few of my best friends. If I send them a picture or video individually though, they can only view it once. (Though there are some hacks to replay a video!)
Something that makes Snapchat fun are the filters. When you think filter, you usually think of black and white, sepia, lo-fi, or those other common ones on Instagram. Snapchat filters are a whole other ball game, though. If I take a video of me singing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” through Snapchat, I can add a filter that makes it slow motion, double speed, or rewind (plays the video backward). There are also Geolocation filters that put an image over the picture that will show your town or wherever you are located. Geolocation uses your phone's location in order to determine what filters are available to you. This is fun when traveling, or if there is a sponsored filter somewhere.
By far the most fun filters are the ones that use face detection technology. There are a ton of different filters, but some of the most popular are ones that morph the image of your face into an animal, Cher, cute deer, or even give you a flower crown. Each day the filters change so you never know what will be available. You can also put text on your photos/video if you want to write something.
Now let’s talk about why people love Snapchat. With Facebook, pictures and videos get posted and exist on the internet for an unlimited duration. This is dangerous because old pictures can come back to haunt you in job interviews or other professional settings. Sometimes potential employers or parents can access photos that younger people may not want them to see. This is especially useful for teenagers where there phones can be taken by parents and searched.
With Snapchat’s temporary photos and videos, users don’t have to worry about being tagged in anything or even having their pictures shared with people they don’t want them shared with. The disappearing media allows a freedom on social media that wasn’t there before. Or so people think.
Do Snapchat Videos and Photos Really Disappear?
The part that I love about Snapchat is that users believe that there pictures are entirely private. The same warning should apply to all social media accounts, and Snapchat is not an outlier. If you don’t want a picture on the internet, then don’t post it. Snapchat is still susceptible to having your pictures saved forever, even when you don't want them to be.
The people who receive the picture could easily screenshot it or take a picture with another phone.
The people who receive the picture could easily screenshot it or take a picture with another phone. If my friend wanted to take a screenshot of the picture I sent of my cat, they could, but I would be notified that it was taken. There are even third party apps and hacks available that will allow users to save copies of everything they see on Snapchat. This could be terrible if someone was under the impression their pictures and videos would be destroyed after they were sent
All those selfies from high school students, flower crown pics, scandalous and possibly incriminating photos that users think disappear forever are actually still around. The average joe wouldn’t be able to access them, but given the right circumstances, law enforcement could recover them from devices. This is because devices will often store the pictures for some time on the device itself.
Snapchat is fun to use, but it also should be used with the same caution that other social media accounts are used with! This means you shouldn’t treat it as a secure messaging service or as a way to keep private photos private. It could definitely come back to bite you in the end! If you’re a parent this is a great conversation to have with your child. It also wouldn’t hurt to download the app yourself and follow their public ‘story’ so you can see what they are showing to the internet!
If you're still feeling like you don't understand how to use Snapchat, fear not. It's hard to conceptualize without a visual example. I've posted a 10-minute primer on how to use Snapchat.
Be sure to check out all my earlier episodes at techtalker.quickanddirtytips.com. And if you have further questions about this podcast or want to make a suggestion for a future episode, post them on http://ift.tt/1xcMcmP.
Until next time, I’m the Tech Talker, keeping technology simple!
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