Snapchat
Snapchat is one of the most popular applications widely used today, having gained significant traction among various demographics. The app boasts approximately 100 million active users, predominantly aged between 18 and 24 years. According to studies, these users send roughly 700 million images or videos daily, showcasing the platform’s vibrant engagement.
Launched in 2011 by Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy, Snapchat is an instant messaging application that allows users to share images and videos. These media can be displayed for a duration ranging from one second to ten seconds before they are automatically deleted from both the sender’s and recipient’s devices.
Disadvantages of Snapchat
While Snapchat offers instant messaging capabilities, it also has significant drawbacks. The messages sent are deleted permanently after a maximum of ten seconds, preventing the recipient from viewing them again. Additionally, the app is considered highly susceptible to hacking, which poses a serious concern for users’ privacy.
Anyone can search for friends using the search engine, thereby accessing personal information from Snapchat’s database. This enables users to discover usernames and the content shared among friends. Moreover, hacking tools have emerged that can save all images and videos exchanged on the platform, even if they are erased after ten seconds, without the sender’s knowledge. Such vulnerabilities have led many to be cautious about using the app.
Snapchat Terminology
Snapchat features its own unique terminology, including:
- Snapchatters: Refers to the users of Snapchat.
- Snap: Represents a “snapshot,” which can be an image or video captured through the app, allowing users to send a snap to Snapchatters with a viewing duration not exceeding ten seconds.
- Story: An option to send a snap to all friends, making it viewable multiple times within a 24-hour period.
- Scores: Indicates the number of snaps sent and received between the user and their friends.
- Chat: Refers to private conversations that occur between friends on the platform.
- Here: A feature available in the chat that allows users to broadcast audio and video directly to friends while chatting.
Features of Snapchat
- Friends can be added exclusively through a QR code.
- Users can add text and various drawings to their images.