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I don't understand why use cases 1 and 2 wouldn't just send a text message picture. Why would you bother with a 3rd party app that erases them? With that said,

I don't understand why use cases 1 and 2 wouldn't just send a text message picture. Why would you bother with a 3rd party app that erases them? With that said, that is probably the least percentage reason as to why people use it. The greatest being for sending half naked photos to strangers.

andyfleming 10y ago
Snapchat removes the hesitation about what you are sending. People don't worry about picture quality, etc. It's a temporary message. It really is about the content.
- gjolund 10y ago
  Or lack thereof.
  - argonaut 10y ago
    Yes. By definition most people's day to day lives are average and not particularly special.
    - gjolund 10y ago
      I find conversations on snapchat annoy me in the same way as conversations with a needy attention seeking girlfriend. All the person wants is confirmation of existence, and most of the time they are not actually interested in a real conversation.
      - argonaut 10y ago
        One wonders why you're even bothering to complain. You realize that fashion, entertainment, movies, video gaming, female modeling, male modeling, and so on probably collectively make up more than $1 trillion of the world economy?
      - andyfleming 10y ago
        I think on the contrary, it is a more honest conversation. Because it is temporary, people share what is currently happening in their life. It may be boring or of little importance, but they share anyway. Sometimes it is because they want attention, but for others they are just staying connected. I would bet that most of them consume other peoples' content just as much as creating content themselves.
alaskamiller 10y ago
This is a refrain on Hacker News since I started coming here for insights since 2008. That because you, personally, don't understand why you would do such a thing therefore said thing is invalidated. It's lazy. Additionally taking that point of view outs you. Much like how when I was 16-23 and creating things on the internet when there was only 100MM users and people were wondering why anyone would want to spend all that time on the computer. Or ever make a webpage. Or put their information online. Or meet people you've only emailed. Or use a credit card to buy things. All in all, the answer is always: there are 7 billion of us out here, the world doesn't revolve around you, grow up.
- overcast 10y ago
  It's clear from your comment history that you're very confrontational, and cocksure. So I'll keep this brief, and end it here. This is a discussion, and questions were asked. Take your own "advice".
  - st3v3r 10y ago
    Questions were not asked. Glenn Beck style "condemning statement that happens to have a ? at the end of it" were made.
v64 10y ago
> I don't understand why use cases 1 and 2 wouldn't just send a text message picture. Why would you bother with a 3rd party app that erases them? Snapchat has more features than sending a simple text. I still use text message pictures when I just want to send a picture. Snapchat lets you caption and draw on photos, which is a big draw. The erasing part of it is a feature too, and not just for nude pics. For example, sometimes I send off color humor to my friends and knowing that the joke's going to go away in 5 seconds makes me less hesitant to send. I don't think my friends themselves are going to screenshot the pics and try to disparage me, but I would feel uncomfortable if I were to email something to them that may accidentally be seen by an SO or parent.
- overcast 10y ago
  If you're that concerned/uncomfortable about what you're sending then don't send it in the first place. Once it's on the internet, it's there forever. Does Snapchat not have the feature now to save incoming messages for a price? I'll grant you the feature of drawing on pictures though.
  - lotso 10y ago
    Here's a question. Why do we need to record everything we do digitally? It's not like we record our conversations when people hang out in person. I'd argue it's stupid that we archive and collect every meaningless conversation we have.
    - overcast 10y ago
      Well, if I take the example from above regarding two people in a relationship. It IS nice, in my experience, to have a running dialogue with pictures available from our relationship. There are plenty of great moments I've received that I would prefer not to just disappear.
      - v64 10y ago
        > There are plenty of great moments I've received that I would prefer not to just disappear. Between my SO and I, for stuff that's more memorable and may want to be saved, we'll use email, but for stuff like "look at this weird sign I saw downtown", we'll use Snapchat. An app is all about its use cases.
pjc50 10y ago
Text message pictures are IME incredibly unreliable and you may be charged for them. And god help you if you accidentally send one internationally; who knows what it might cost?
- overcast 10y ago
  So like international data costs over Snapchat?
  - zzz157 10y ago
    What? I mean, if YOU are overseas and send a Snapchat, sure. But it's no different from any other data. Sending a MMS picture or video to someone else who is overseas, could be expensive. Snapchat won't incur any fees that all other data wouldn't, such as uploading the picture to Facebook.

andyfleming 10y ago

Snapchat removes the hesitation about what you are sending. People don't worry about picture quality, etc. It's a temporary message. It really is about the content.

gjolund 10y ago
Or lack thereof.
- argonaut 10y ago
  Yes. By definition most people's day to day lives are average and not particularly special.
  - gjolund 10y ago
    I find conversations on snapchat annoy me in the same way as conversations with a needy attention seeking girlfriend. All the person wants is confirmation of existence, and most of the time they are not actually interested in a real conversation.
    - argonaut 10y ago
      One wonders why you're even bothering to complain. You realize that fashion, entertainment, movies, video gaming, female modeling, male modeling, and so on probably collectively make up more than $1 trillion of the world economy?
    - andyfleming 10y ago
      I think on the contrary, it is a more honest conversation. Because it is temporary, people share what is currently happening in their life. It may be boring or of little importance, but they share anyway. Sometimes it is because they want attention, but for others they are just staying connected. I would bet that most of them consume other peoples' content just as much as creating content themselves.

alaskamiller 10y ago

This is a refrain on Hacker News since I started coming here for insights since 2008. That because you, personally, don't understand why you would do such a thing therefore said thing is invalidated. It's lazy. Additionally taking that point of view outs you. Much like how when I was 16-23 and creating things on the internet when there was only 100MM users and people were wondering why anyone would want to spend all that time on the computer. Or ever make a webpage. Or put their information online. Or meet people you've only emailed. Or use a credit card to buy things. All in all, the answer is always: there are 7 billion of us out here, the world doesn't revolve around you, grow up.

overcast 10y ago
It's clear from your comment history that you're very confrontational, and cocksure. So I'll keep this brief, and end it here. This is a discussion, and questions were asked. Take your own "advice".
- st3v3r 10y ago
  Questions were not asked. Glenn Beck style "condemning statement that happens to have a ? at the end of it" were made.

v64 10y ago

> I don't understand why use cases 1 and 2 wouldn't just send a text message picture. Why would you bother with a 3rd party app that erases them? Snapchat has more features than sending a simple text. I still use text message pictures when I just want to send a picture. Snapchat lets you caption and draw on photos, which is a big draw. The erasing part of it is a feature too, and not just for nude pics. For example, sometimes I send off color humor to my friends and knowing that the joke's going to go away in 5 seconds makes me less hesitant to send. I don't think my friends themselves are going to screenshot the pics and try to disparage me, but I would feel uncomfortable if I were to email something to them that may accidentally be seen by an SO or parent.

overcast 10y ago
If you're that concerned/uncomfortable about what you're sending then don't send it in the first place. Once it's on the internet, it's there forever. Does Snapchat not have the feature now to save incoming messages for a price? I'll grant you the feature of drawing on pictures though.
- lotso 10y ago
  Here's a question. Why do we need to record everything we do digitally? It's not like we record our conversations when people hang out in person. I'd argue it's stupid that we archive and collect every meaningless conversation we have.
  - overcast 10y ago
    Well, if I take the example from above regarding two people in a relationship. It IS nice, in my experience, to have a running dialogue with pictures available from our relationship. There are plenty of great moments I've received that I would prefer not to just disappear.
    - v64 10y ago
      > There are plenty of great moments I've received that I would prefer not to just disappear. Between my SO and I, for stuff that's more memorable and may want to be saved, we'll use email, but for stuff like "look at this weird sign I saw downtown", we'll use Snapchat. An app is all about its use cases.

pjc50 10y ago

Text message pictures are IME incredibly unreliable and you may be charged for them. And god help you if you accidentally send one internationally; who knows what it might cost?

overcast 10y ago
So like international data costs over Snapchat?
- zzz157 10y ago
  What? I mean, if YOU are overseas and send a Snapchat, sure. But it's no different from any other data. Sending a MMS picture or video to someone else who is overseas, could be expensive. Snapchat won't incur any fees that all other data wouldn't, such as uploading the picture to Facebook.