Snapchat facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Snapchat

Original author(s)	Reggie Brown Bobby Murphy Evan Spiegel
Developer(s)	Snap Inc.
Initial release	September 2011; 12 years ago (2011-09)
Operating system	Android 5.0 or later iOS 12 or later
Size	64 MB (Android) 258 MB (iOS)
Available in	37 languages
List of languages English, Arabic, Bengali, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese
Type	Photo sharing instant messaging video chat multimedia
License	Proprietary software

Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "my eyes only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.

Snapchat was created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, former students at Stanford University. It is known for representing a mobile-first direction for social media, and places significant emphasis on users interacting with virtual stickers and augmented reality objects. In July 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users, a 23% growth over a year. On average more than four billion Snaps are sent each day. Snapchat is popular among the younger generations, particularly those below the age of 16, leading to many privacy concerns for parents.

Features

Core functionality

Snapchat is primarily used for creating multimedia messages referred to as "snaps"; snaps can consist of a photo or a short video, and can be edited to include filters and effects, text captions, and drawings. Snaps can be directed privately to selected contacts, or to a semi-public "Story" or a public "Story" called "Our Story". The ability to send video snaps was added as a feature option in December 2012. By holding down on the photo button while inside the app, a video of up to ten seconds in length can be captured. Spiegel explained that this process allowed the video data to be compressed into the size of a photo. A later update allowed the ability to record up to 60 seconds, but are still segmented into 10 second intervals. After a single viewing, the video disappears by default. On May 1, 2014, the ability to communicate via video chat was added. Direct messaging features were also included in the update, allowing users to send ephemeral text messages to friends and family while saving any needed information by clicking on it. According to CIO, Snapchat uses real-time marketing concepts and temporality to make the app appealing to users. According to Marketing Pro, Snapchat attracts interest and potential customers by combining the AIDA (marketing) model with modern digital technology.

Private message photo snaps can be viewed for a user-specified length of time (1 to 10 seconds as determined by the sender) before they become inaccessible. Users were previously required to hold down on the screen in order to view a snap; this behavior was removed in July 2015 The requirement to hold on the screen was intended to frustrate the ability to take screenshots of snaps; the Snapchat app does not prevent screenshots from being taken but can notify the sender if it detects that it has been saved. However, these notifications can be bypassed through either unauthorized modifications to the app or by obtaining the image through external means. One snap per day can be replayed for free. In September 2015, Snapchat introduced the option to purchase additional replays through in-app purchases. The ability to purchase extra replays was removed in April 2016.

Friends can be added via usernames and phone contacts, using customizable "Snapcodes", or through the "Add Nearby" function, which scans for users near their location who are also in the Add Nearby menu. Spiegel explained that Snapchat is intended to counteract the trend of users being compelled to manage an idealized online identity of themselves, which he says has "taken all of the fun out of communicating."

In November 2014, Snapchat introduced "Snapcash", a feature that lets users send and receive money to each other through private messaging. The payments system is powered by Square.

In July 2016, Snapchat introduced a new, optional feature known as "Memories". Memories allow snaps and story posts to be saved into a private storage area, where they can be viewed alongside other photos stored on the device, as well as edited and published as snaps, story posts, or messages anytime. When shared with a user's current story, the memory would have a timestamp to indicate its age. Content in the Memories storage area can be searched by date or using a local object recognition system. Snaps accessible within Memories can additionally be placed into a "My Eyes Only" area that is locked with a Personal identification number (PIN). Snapchat has stated that the Memories feature was inspired by the practice of manually scrolling through photos on a phone to show them to others. In April 2017, the white border around old memories was removed. While originally intended to let viewers know the material was old, TechCrunch wrote that the indicator "ended up annoying users who didn't want their snaps altered, sometimes to the point where they would decide not to share the old content at all."

In May 2017, an update made it possible to send snaps with unlimited viewing time, dropping the previous ten-second maximum duration, with the content disappearing after being deliberately closed by the recipient. New creative tools, namely the ability to draw with an emoji, videos that play in a loop, and an eraser that lets users remove objects in a photo with the app filling in the space with the background, were also released.

In July 2017, Snapchat started allowing users to add links to snaps, enabling them to direct viewers to specific websites; the feature was only available for brands previously. Additionally, the update added more creative tools: A "Backdrop" feature lets users cut out a specific object from their photo and apply colorful patterns to it in order to bring greater emphasis to that object, and "Voice Filters" enable users to remix the sounds of their voices in the snap. Voice Filters was previously available as part of the feature enabling augmented reality lenses, with the new update adding a dedicated speaker icon to remix the audio in any snap.

In June 2020, Snap announced "minis", embeddable apps that live inside the parent Snap app.

In August 2022, Snap launched the "Family Center" feature which allows parents to monitor the activity of their children, ages 13–18, within the app.

In February 2023, Snapchat launched "My AI", a custom chatbot offering Snapchat+ users access to a mobile version of the AI chatbot ChatGPT. It followed up by announcing that its customizable My AI chatbot would be accessible to all users within the app in April 2023, a month after OpenAI allowed access to third parties, and would be available for group chats.

In April 2023, Snapchat began rolling out a new feature called My AI. This experimental AI chatbot can carry out tasks including responding to queries, giving advice, and organizing travel. The technology behind My AI is OpenAI's GPT, which is the same technology that powers Microsoft's Bing search engine. My AI can be found at the top of users' chat feeds. Only paid subscribers who have availed of Snapchat+ have the option to pin or unpin features, including My AI.

Filters, lenses, and stickers

Snaps can be personalized with various forms of visual effects and stickers. Geofilters are graphical overlays available if the user is within a certain geographical location, such as a city, event, or destination. Users can design and create their own geofilters for personal events at a fee of $10–15 USD per hour. They can also subscribe to an annual plan which ranges from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the location, for a permanent filter. A similar feature known as Geostickers was launched in 10 major cities in 2016. Bitmoji are stickers featuring personalized cartoon avatars, which can be used in snaps and messaging. Bitmoji characters can also be used as World Lenses.

The "Lens" feature, introduced in September 2015, allows users to add real-time effects into their snaps by using face detection technology. This is activated by long-pressing on a face within the viewfinder. In April 2017, Snapchat extended this feature into "World Lenses", which use augmented reality technology to integrate 3D rendered elements (such as objects and animated characters) into scenes; these elements are placed and anchored in 3D space.

On October 26, 2018, at TwitchCon, Snap launched the Snap Camera desktop application for macOS and Windows PCs, which enables use of Snapchat lenses in videotelephony and live streaming services such as Skype, Twitch, YouTube, and Zoom. However, this was discontinued in January 2023. Snapchat also launched integration with Twitch, including an in-stream widget for Snapcodes, the ability to offer lenses to stream viewers and as an incentive to channel subscribers. Several video game-themed lenses were also launched at this time, including ones themed around League of Legends, Overwatch, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

In August 2020, Snapchat collaborated with four TikTok influencers to launch Augmented Reality (AR) lenses to create a more interactive experience with users. The lenses now incorporate geo-locational mapping techniques to incorporate digital overlays onto real world surfaces. These lenses track 18 joints across the body to identify body movements, and generate effects around the body of the user. Advertising is now also utilizing AR lenses that make users a part of the advert. Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Taco Bell are just a select few of the brands now utilizing the tech on Snapchat. Consumers no longer scroll past these adverts, but become a part of them with AR lenses.

In March 2022, Snapchat launched the ability to share YouTube videos as stickers. The stickers function as clickable links that redirect users to a browser or the YouTube app.

Friend emojis

Friend emojis can be customized, however the default emojis are listed below. The snapscore, which states the amount of snaps one has sent and received is recorded and is visible to one's friends. If users tap their own score it shows the ratio of sent and received snaps, the amount of snaps they have sent is on the right and the amount of snaps they have received is on the left, these numbers combined are their Snapchat score. There are multiple synonyms for Snapchat score such as Snapchat points, Snapscore, Snap points and Snap Number. YouTube has a similar rewards system called "Perks".

Stories and Discover

In October 2013, Snapchat introduced the "My Story" feature, which allows users to compile snaps into chronological storylines, accessible to all of their friends. By June 2014, photo and video snaps presented to friends in the Stories functionality had surpassed person-to-person private snaps as the most frequently used function of the service, with over one billion viewed per day—double the daily views tallied in April 2014.

In June 2014, the story feature was expanded to incorporate "Our Stories", which was then changed to "Live Stories" about a year later. The feature allows users on-location at specific events (such as music festivals or sporting events) to contribute snaps to a curated story advertised to all users, showcasing a single event from multiple perspectives and viewpoints. These curated snaps provided by the app's contributors and selected for the "Live" section could also be more localized, but Snapchat eventually scaled back the more personal imaging streams in order to emphasize public events.

An "Official Stories" designation was added in November 2015 to denote the public stories of notable figures and celebrities, similar to Twitter's "Verified account" program.

In January 2015, Snapchat introduced "Discover" an area containing channels of ad-supported short-form content from major publishers, including BuzzFeed, CNN, ESPN, Mashable, People, Vice and Snapchat itself among others. To address data usage concerns related to these functions, a "Travel Mode" option was added in August 2015. When activated, the feature prevents the automatic downloading of snaps until they are explicitly requested by the user.

In October 2016, the app was updated to replace its auto-advance functionality, which automatically moved users from one story to the next, with a "Story Playlist" feature, letting users select thumbnails of users in the list to play only selected stories.

In January 2017, Snapchat revamped its design, adding search functionality and a new global live "Our Story" feature, to which any user can contribute.

In May 2017, Snapchat introduced "Custom Stories", letting users collaboratively make stories combining their captures.

In June 2017, "Snap Map" was introduced, which allows users to optionally share their location with friends. A map display, accessible from the viewfinder, can be used to locate stories based on location data, supporting the use of Bitmoji as place markers. Entering a "Ghost Mode" hides the user from the map. The function is based on the app Zenly, which was acquired by Snap Inc. prior to its launch. The map data is supplied from OpenStreetMap and Mapbox, while satellite imagery comes from DigitalGlobe.

In February 2020, Snapchat released a Discover cartoon series called Bitmoji TV, which will star users' avatars.

Images for kids

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  World map indicating Snapchat's core users by country in 2014. Map based on data from a report from Business Insider Intelligence.

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  Snapchat Spectacles Vending Machine at SXSW 2017, Austin, Texas

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  Example Snapchat "snap" on a smartphone.

See also

In Spanish: Snapchat para niños