There's a couple really good reasons why they can't do that, trademark, PR and user trust. They need to defend their trademark, or it will be genericized. Not

There's a couple really good reasons why they can't do that, trademark, PR and user trust. They need to defend their trademark, or it will be genericized. Not that that's a big deal, but it can be a thing. More importantly, if the windows store is filled with crappy snapchat apps, it hurts their brand. If they release an update that breaks those apps, it hurts their brand. It's a no-win situation. Then there's hacks of third party apps, that are spun as being Snapchat's problem: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/01/tech/social-media/snapchat-hack/ http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/01/tech/social-media/snapchat-hac... Snapchat is in a particularly bad position for the last bit, because what they're selling is fundamentally a lie, and having that lie exposed hurt them a lot.