Ever wanted to take a picture of yourself, send to someone, then hope to God it never sees the light of day after that moment? Then pay close attention! There is an app called snapchat, that allows you to do just that. Literally, you can chat via pictures, sending each other pictures that self destruct after six seconds. This is the latest social media fad, as the company is now valued at a whooping 800 million dollars!
The Wikipedia article offers this, “using the app, users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of recipients. Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their photos, up to 10 seconds, after which they will be hidden from the recipient’s device and deleted from the company’s servers.”
It was developed by Daniel Smith, David Kravitz, Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel, a small team of four Stanford friends. They describes it as “a new way to share moments with friends. Snap an ugly selfie or a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend (or maybe a few). They’ll receive it, laugh, and then the snap disappears. The image might be a little grainy, and you may not look your best, but that’s the point. It’s about the moment, a connection between friends, and not just a pretty picture. It’s not all about fancy vacations, sushi dinners, or beautiful sunsets. Sometimes it’s an inside joke, a silly face, or greetings from a pet fish.”
Snapchat’s revels in the vain, fickle and ephemeral. Their own words, “Great conversations are magical; that’s because they are shared, enjoyed, but not saved.” One thing that you need to note about this service is, you determine who gets your snaps by selecting recipients on the send to menu. Your pictures are safe, and if someone takes a screen shot, you will be notified.
Free, just like Whatsapp, you only use your daily data bundle. Also, the only person who can save images is the sender. If you delete your account, all of your account information will be permanently deleted and you will be unable to restore your account. Deleting your account may take up to 48 hours.
So you wonder then, how can you block someone who constantly decides to inundate you with snaps? Tap the Menu icon, select “My Friends,” locate their name in the list and swipe right across their name. Press “Edit” and then “Block.” If you would like to delete a friend from your contacts, press “Delete.”
To keep strangers from snap-chatting you, configure Snapchat to only accept messages from users on your “My Friends” list. Tap on the menu icon, enter Settings, go to “Who can send me snaps” and select “My Friends.” As of 28 November 2012, users had shared over one billion photos on the Snapchat iOS app, with 20 million photos being shared per day. Will this trend catch up?
According to Wikipedia, On May 9, 2013, Forbes reported that the photos do not disappear, and that they can be retrieved even after their time limit had expired with a minimum of technical know-how.A few days later, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint against Snapchat with the Federal Trade Commission saying that the company deceived its customers by leading them to believe that pictures are destroyed within seconds of viewing.[ Snapchat photos and videos can also be permanently saved with apps such as Snap Save.
