Everything You Need to Know About the Newest Version of Snapchat
Isaiah Bollinger
Isaiah Bollinger
Perhaps we should have guessed that Snapchat had something up their sleeves when they turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook in November 2013. Evan Spiegel, Snapchat’s founder may have just revealed what that something was yesterday by releasing a new, updated version of Snapchat which features disappearing chat and an innovative video chat feature which in essence turns your cell phone into a video walkie talkie.
With Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp for $20 billion, this new version of Snapchat looks to validate the 23 year old CEO’s decision to hold off on selling the company. Snapchat reports that roughly over 700 million snaps are shared daily making it possibly the world’s most used photo sharing app. Snapchat’s ultimate goal is eliminate the need for users to communicate across multiple apps and by integrating both chat and video Siegel’s decision is looking more and more savvy.
BREAKING DOWN THE NEW FEATURES
The latest version of Snapchat offers up two main features and a host of other minor tweaks to the user interface in order to offer a better chat experience.
Chat
Users can now use Snapchat for more than sending pictures and videos that disappear as soon as they’re viewed. By swiping right on your friends you open up the new chat window which resembles most other chat programs. Of course this being Snapchat the major difference is that once you leave the chat window the texts you send back and forth disappear. Should you receive a chat that is worth saving you can of course take a snapshot with your phone which alerts the other party or you can click on the text itself and it will save the contents for when you open up your next chat session. Snaps can also be sent directly through this chat window via the yellow button in the middle of the screen.
Video Chat
The big feature everyone will be talking about is the new built in video chat. While you are looking at your new chat window you will be alerted if the person you are talking to is also looking at the chat through the yellow snap button which will now turn blue. Holding down the blue button will allow you to instantly share video with your friends. Sliding your finger up while still holding down will show the other person your back camera while sliding your finger down will show your front camera, allowing you to have face to face conversations with your friends. Video chats do not require any dialing in and can be initiated by either party with either one way or two way sharing depending on who is holding down on their screen.
Both these features are welcome additions to Snapchat and will allow people to have a much more fulfilling experience on the app. By eliminating the need for users to communicate via multiple apps expect Snapchat’s rapid growth to continue and only time will tell how much Spiegel’s app will ultimately sell for.
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