Everybody loves photography, looking at photos, getting your photo taken and sharing photos with friends and family. Now more than ever, photography is at our fingertips and the majority of us have instant, constant access to decent devices for taking and sharing pictures. The evolution of smartphones has brought with it its very own photography evolution. As most of us now own an iPhone or Android device of some sort it is necessary to look after them with a relevant gadget insurance policy for our own peace of mind and security. Most smartphones now come with a high quality camera and the opportunity to edit and share your photos over a number of social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and the latest app that has taken off is Snapchat, it does exactly what it says on the tin.
Snapchat is a relatively new app to the Android and iOS market. It is the newest way to share unique moments with your friends. You can simply send a picture to your friends with the option to add a caption. When they receive it, the snap will last for up to ten seconds and then it will disappear forever. The picture may be a bit pixelated or you might not be looking your best, but that is the point of the app, to share a moment and enjoy it. Users can add a caption, use a paint function or even record a short video to send to friends. However, an imperfection for which users might not be as satisfied is that videos sent by others cannot be saved. But again that is meant to be one of Snapchat`s charms.
The studentsEvan Spiegel (22) andBobby Murphy (24) from Stanford University developed the application as a final project. Firstly, it was believed that the idea would be totally unsuccessful because of the self-deleting pictures. Their idea was to ‘counteract the trend of being compelled to manage an idealised online identity’, which founder Evan Spiegel believes has ‘taken all the fun out of communicating’. Sharing silly moments with friends can be a lot of fun, whether it is an inside joke or something totally random, Snapchat is a great way to share with friends who are home or away. Users can find their friends through their own phone’s contact list, which makes it so simple to stay in touch with your mates. Although Snapchat has become quite successful with over 50 million messages a day, Facebook also decided to introduce an app called ‘Poke’ with similar features. It is believed that the app was developed only for few days by Facebook`s engineers.
Why not give it a try? It is free to download from the iOS app store and android play store. It is a fun app that avoids a lot of the materialistic notions that other photography applications thrive on. Its founders believe that the app is magical not only because the moments are shared and enjoyed, but mainly because they are not saved. Happy snapping!
