Snapchat is one of those quirky but fun mobile apps that grow to be very popular then disappear completely. Right now Snapchat seems to be booming but we expect it to vanish sometime in the middle future. That’s a bit sad really, at least for its creators. Why? Because they turned down an offer of three billion dollars for their company. The offer was from Facebook, believe it or not. We’re not sure what Facebook was going to do with the app but they didn’t get it. Here’s what Snapchat is all about.

Basically Snapchat represents the fleeting moments of time that we use to wish we could share with others. Whether by photos or short snippets of video, Snapchat allows you to capture a moment in your timeline of life, share it, then watch it disappear forever. (Sort of. More on that later.)  Users have a list of friends and send these snippets out to them, singly or in groups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since there is no way to find other users,  meeting strangers is difficult. Because of this, users can feel reasonably safe when they share a moment with a friend because the person they share it with is usually just that, a real friend. They may also feel safe because the things they share disappear as soon as the recipient sees them. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

In reality, thanks to the screen capture feature built into virtually every mobile device, a savvy user can receive a Snapchat image and save it to their phone.  The snaps are also stored on Snapchat’s servers for a certain length of time, perhaps forever, just in case the justice system needs them for reference. If you do happen to give Snapchat a try, keep in mind these two ways that a photo just might come back to haunt you later.

We came to Snapchat by chance, actually. In doing research for this post, we downloaded the app and tried to sign up for an account. Strangely enough, it seems we already had an account, or at least Snapchat thought we did. Obviously someone had used one of our email addresses to sign up for Snapchat and simply left it that way. We were able to change the password, essentially hijacking the account, and now receive Snaps meant for the other person. Honestly, we don’t think this is a bad thing, specially since we can’t contact the real owner of the account. We did change the profile name but  we still get snaps every day from many ‘friends’ who aren’t really friends.

If you’re really stuck and can’t find other users, there is a Facebook group called ‘Snapchat Usernames’. You can post yours or simply look for interesting people to add to your account. Be careful though. There is no age limit on Snapchat and, from what we’ve seen and read anyway, there are many times more guys looking for girls than vice versa. That shouldn’t be news to anyone, right?

If you’ve had some interesting Snapchat experiences, we’d love to hear about them. Our opinion after using Snapchat for a month or so it this: the creators should have taken the money and run. We may be wrong but we don’t think Snapchat is going anywhere. WeChat is still our favorite way to meet new people.

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