There’s hardly anything in the modern social media world that can resemble what those platforms used to be. Facebook started as a simple “wall” where people used to publish their status; no photos, no videos, nothing, just people with a simple profile photo and text. Later, it started mutating to what it is now, a mixture of all other social media and a refuge for mostly 30+ people. The same happened with Instagram. It used to be a place where photos were king, and now videos are taking over, converting it to almost YouTube with shorts.
Something similar is happening to Snapchat, an app mostly used by young people, which demands dynamism on a daily basis, unable to stand still like some other platforms like Twitter. This continuous demand is also changing what that old “snap” oriented platform is becoming, adding more and more content to the extent that in some time it might also be unable to recognize it compared to its old self.
But not all changes are bad. The addition of filters some time ago added a dimension to sharing photos that the app lacked and so many other platforms were doing at that time. But without a doubt, the main reason so many people still use Snapchat is its “privacy,” since you can set how long a photo lasts before it disappears forever, which is one of the key elements that make this social media so popular.
Some other additions have kept the users interested for some time now, since Snapchat is now 11 years old. Since its development as an app that could send and receive photos and videos to friends and family, it has incorporated quite a lot, making it a very competitive social media. In particular today when TikTok, Instagram and Twitter hold the crown high as the most visited platforms in the world, and video has such an important role, with users creating cool stories with stock video or live stories.
What makes it different?
In this quite saturation of social media and other platforms like 9gag, Reddit and such, having something distinctive seems to make the difference, particularly if the target are millennials and GenZ youngsters. In fact, most of the users of this network are people that could be classified in that age range, meaning from teenagers to people in their mid-thirties. Of course, it’s a range of people that are considered the most demanding, since they need the “thrill” of something new and exciting almost all the time.
Born with another name (it was actually called “Picaboo”), it clearly meant that it was something quite different to what Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were offering. Since TikTok was also making its first steps in China, there was a lot of room in this huge market for social media platforms. Eventually, it was able to really pickup with young people, mainly in the United States, particularly because of its revolutionary setting that allowed you to see in real time where your friends are and what they are posting.
This is also related to another great feature that is the “heat maps”, which takes geolocation info from the users (if you allow it, of course) and creates a map with red-to-blue zones, depending on the number of pictures, videos, or interactions created around that area. It´s also a really practical way for tourists that land for the first time in big cities, or even small towns, to check out where are people posting stories and what´s interesting there to see.
It also has a “rewards” system that gives users a “score” depending on how often they snap, how they interact with other users and how big their network is. It allows other users to check if the person trying to add them is a legit friend or friend-to-be, or maybe a newbie or scammer. It’s a great system that allows its users to be safer when exchanging photos with other people.
YouTube meets Snapchat.
The possibility to instantly share videos from YouTube is one of the most anticipated updates that users have been asking for a long time. It allows you to instantly share with your friends any video you might like from the popular platform. It’s without a doubt one of the greatest additions the platform has had since its creation, since now you can also crop a video and send the exact part you want.
Available on both iOS and Android, it will surely bring a lot of people into this platform since it’s a major step forward from what it’s been criticized as being missing. There are many experts that say that sharing and integration with other social media platforms is one of the lacking aspects of Snapchat, making this a big step forward.
In particular, after the addition of other cool features like the ability to share games with your friends, as well as video calls and other great elements. Without a doubt, Snapchat is now becoming one of the most complete social media platforms in the market, having, for example, the possibility to enhance reality and find some impressive elements added by other users.
