5 ms·

Maybe I'm just a crazy millennial, but I absolutely loathe the idea of FB / Insta stories. Snapchat going under wouldn't convince me to move over -- I'd just st

by teirce 9y ago

Maybe I'm just a crazy millennial, but I absolutely loathe the idea of FB / Insta stories. Snapchat going under wouldn't convince me to move over -- I'd just stop using the service and move on to communicating some other way. And Stories aren't the only appeal of SNAP, though I suppose they are a large producer of revenue. HN just loves to hate SNAP, and I can't really fathom why. I can get being skeptical but every comment here seems like they /want/ to see the company fail.

wcummings 9y ago
Same, SnapChat is the only "social" app I use. I don't even use stories. Very few of my friends publish stories. I think mostly marketers use them.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Everyone in my teen sons social circles use snap. Nobody is on Facebook.
jdhn 9y ago
Another crazy millennial here. I don't have an Instagram either, and frankly I don't want one. As for why HN hates Snap, I'm not exactly sure. Is it because the average user on HN is older and isn't targeted by Snap? Maybe it's seen as a frivolous plaything? No matter what the reason, there's definitely a lot of hate for Snap on this site.
- eganist 9y ago
  My reasoning for loathing snap was their refusal to even allow a snap client for windows phone to exist.
  - jdhn 9y ago
    There actually was an unofficial Snap client for Windows Phone for a time. I thought it was pretty good to be honest.
    - aplummer 9y ago
      6snap, also the same author as tinder and insta clones.
  - electic 9y ago
    Sounds like they made the right choice because the platform collapsed. It makes no sense spending design and dev time on a platform that simply isn't taking off.
    - michaelbrooks 9y ago
      I think he's on about allowing a third party to create and support a Snapchat app for Windows devices. There was 6Snap which worked really well, but got shut down because Snap were forcing third parties to close their apps. Someone also created an open source app on Windows, but I'm not sure what happened to that one.
  - JohnnyConatus 9y ago
    No more entries, we have a winner for the most obscure reason to dislike a social service.
    - michaelbrooks 9y ago
      I don't loathe Snap, but I do dislike their decision for not supporting Windows 10. Microsoft even offered a cash incentive to Snap for creating an app and Snap still outright said no. Surely no matter how much you hate a platform, if you're being offered an incentive, you would say yes?
      - daveFNbuck 9y ago
        There's a huge opportunity cost in putting some of your developers on creating an app for a niche market. Snap probably felt that Microsoft's incentive didn't cover that cost.
        tazard 9y ago
        Not to mention maintenance and upkeep.
- untilHellbanned 9y ago
  It's because people at SNAP made a lot of money and {HN_user} did not.
  - untilHellbanned 9y ago
    Downvoting doesn't make it false.
- runeks 9y ago
  > As for why HN hates Snap, I'm not exactly sure. Why must it be hate? Couldn't it just be, simply, that we're not that interested in yet another chat application? To me, Snap is a slightly modified ICQ client. Fine, but not very interesting. Real progress would be some sort of open standard, so who you're speaking with isn't determined by which company's chat server you connect to. But then again email has supported this for several decades already, so maybe the demand isn't there.
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I have an android phone (S7 edge). Before I got this phone, I was a light user of snapchat. On the new phone, Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram were pre-installed. I set them up, they started working perfectly. I downloaded snapchat. It crashed on login. I literally could not get it to work on my brand new flagship device. That's my reason. PS: also a millennial here, not very crazy though, regrettably
- blubb-fish 9y ago
  Confirmed - it's a frivolous plaything - very well put!
- jeffdavis 9y ago
  At first, I dismissed snapchat thinking "people will hack the protocol and save messages anyway, and the whole idea will fall apart". Then, I was a little envious that someone else had the idea, and I now think it was a good idea, and that I was blinded by an overly-technical analysis of their product. But it doesn't look like the couple good ideas they had were enough to make a long-term business. So, unless they do something cool in the next 12 months, RIP. Founders got a nice payday, so who cares?
- afpx 9y ago
  40 year old, here. I mainly use snap to play with filters with my young kids. I'd never use it for communication because the UX is horrendous. A while ago, there was an odd corporate push to try to use snap internally (was there some marketing push?). And, all of my co-workers spent lots of time brainstorming how to even use snap effectively. The swarms of 13 years olds that roam through my house only ever seem to use their mobile for Instagram, snap, and youtube. However, more recently I've noticed that the boys have been walking around with bluetooth headsets on as they have a large group chat going on in the background. Not sure what app they're using.
  - colinprince 9y ago
    Discord is growing like crazy and their voice chat is easy to use and reliable for groups
fullshark 9y ago
I'm not rooting for Snap to fail, any negative comments I made (and have seen here) were because I thought their IPO price was absurd. I think they can carve out a niche and be profitable but the expectation that they grow to the size of FB / GOOGL I just don't see it, and the IPO seemed to be priced based on that. I also thought their stock set up with zero voting rights was crazy but that's a separate issue.
- deepGem 9y ago
  Zero voting rights make a lot of sense for the founders in today's world of activist investors. Caveat, the founders act in good faith.
  - kgwgk 9y ago
    And make little sense for investors.
ghthor 9y ago
Yeah, I don't get it either. As far as I'm concerned Snap is one of the most interesting startups recently because they started with as a software company that managed to actually make a Good consumer hardware item that I wear everyday. I love my Spectacles, I wasn't even a snapchat user before they released, but they are a slick device.
- debaserab2 9y ago
  Do you ever feel a little creepy wearing those? I've seen a few people with them on, and my immediate gut reaction every time is to get out of their eyesight. I'm sure I'm not the only one and it makes me wonder if most spectacles owners even think about it.
  - icantdrive55 9y ago
    I'm definitely getting older. I have never liked my picture taken without my permission. I've begrudgingly put up with it, but inside despise people/companies/goverment taking my picture for any reason. I just figured people under thirty despised all the picture taking? Am I wrong? I get the sexting. I wish I had this tech around in my day, but you people are o.k. with some stranger snapping your pic? It doesn't bother you when your employer makes you pose for a company picture? Or, bring surveilled when you walk into a retail establishment? Hell--I never even liked having to take that Costco pic? (By the way, you can use the pharmacy without being a member.) My point is you people don't seem to mind random people, companies, and government taking your picture? (Yes--I said you people, but hate those generational tags. I mean under 35--I guess? I don't know what's considered young anymore.)
- defunctirl 9y ago
  I quite like the idea of them, but I can't get past the design (which I know would look ridiculous on myself). Would be interested in playing around with a pair but they're not very common where I am.
austenallred 9y ago
I love Insta stories. It's an immersive way to see what your friends are up to. Just sit back and tap/swipe, takes 30 seconds, pretty passive.
- girvo 9y ago
  I dunno, my friends (in their mid-late 20s) are much more active on Snapchat for stories. Most of the people I follow on Insta aren't my friends, so their stories aren't very interesting to me
hoorayimhelping 9y ago
Where did you see hate for SNAP? GP's comment said Facebook is killing it and speculated that SNAP has no chance against them. Like 5/6 of the comment is an excellent summary of the call (on a story that is behind a paywall), and then a couple of sentences of opinion and speculation and from that you get HN hates SNAP? I don't get it.
milcron 9y ago
Used it starting in 2013, uninstalled after they started filling it with crap. For me its killer feature was how easy it was to send videos. But it's not worth all the advertising they're stuffing into the app.
lordgrenville 9y ago
HN is bearish on SNAP, just like Wall Street is. Sure, they could end up hugely successful, it would just surprise people. Even their own underwriters gave them a HOLD rating as soon as they were allowed to. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/11/snap-underwriter-morgan-stanley-downgrades-the-stock.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/11/snap-underwriter-morgan-stanl...
rickdg 9y ago
Do they have a working android app yet?
Quarrelsome 9y ago
> HN just loves to hate SNAP, and I can't really fathom why Their entire product was marketed on the lie of ephemeral messaging. That's why I've always hated it. I don't like it when people talk down to the general public like that and lie to them about what technology can and cannot do.
lmm 9y ago
Snapchat's founder always came across as hubristic in a way Facebook's wasn't. I try not to hate, but I don't like it when people act like they've made something wonderful when actually they built the thing with other people's money and made hardly any revenue.

by teirce 9y ago

wcummings 9y ago

Same, SnapChat is the only "social" app I use. I don't even use stories. Very few of my friends publish stories. I think mostly marketers use them.

ams6110 9y ago
Everyone in my teen sons social circles use snap. Nobody is on Facebook.

jdhn 9y ago

Another crazy millennial here. I don't have an Instagram either, and frankly I don't want one. As for why HN hates Snap, I'm not exactly sure. Is it because the average user on HN is older and isn't targeted by Snap? Maybe it's seen as a frivolous plaything? No matter what the reason, there's definitely a lot of hate for Snap on this site.

eganist 9y ago
My reasoning for loathing snap was their refusal to even allow a snap client for windows phone to exist.
- jdhn 9y ago
  There actually was an unofficial Snap client for Windows Phone for a time. I thought it was pretty good to be honest.
  - aplummer 9y ago
    6snap, also the same author as tinder and insta clones.
- electic 9y ago
  Sounds like they made the right choice because the platform collapsed. It makes no sense spending design and dev time on a platform that simply isn't taking off.
  - michaelbrooks 9y ago
    I think he's on about allowing a third party to create and support a Snapchat app for Windows devices. There was 6Snap which worked really well, but got shut down because Snap were forcing third parties to close their apps. Someone also created an open source app on Windows, but I'm not sure what happened to that one.
- JohnnyConatus 9y ago
  No more entries, we have a winner for the most obscure reason to dislike a social service.
  - michaelbrooks 9y ago
    I don't loathe Snap, but I do dislike their decision for not supporting Windows 10. Microsoft even offered a cash incentive to Snap for creating an app and Snap still outright said no. Surely no matter how much you hate a platform, if you're being offered an incentive, you would say yes?
    - daveFNbuck 9y ago
      There's a huge opportunity cost in putting some of your developers on creating an app for a niche market. Snap probably felt that Microsoft's incentive didn't cover that cost.
      - tazard 9y ago
        Not to mention maintenance and upkeep.
untilHellbanned 9y ago
It's because people at SNAP made a lot of money and {HN_user} did not.
- untilHellbanned 9y ago
  Downvoting doesn't make it false.
runeks 9y ago
> As for why HN hates Snap, I'm not exactly sure. Why must it be hate? Couldn't it just be, simply, that we're not that interested in yet another chat application? To me, Snap is a slightly modified ICQ client. Fine, but not very interesting. Real progress would be some sort of open standard, so who you're speaking with isn't determined by which company's chat server you connect to. But then again email has supported this for several decades already, so maybe the demand isn't there.
dingo_bat 9y ago
I have an android phone (S7 edge). Before I got this phone, I was a light user of snapchat. On the new phone, Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram were pre-installed. I set them up, they started working perfectly. I downloaded snapchat. It crashed on login. I literally could not get it to work on my brand new flagship device. That's my reason. PS: also a millennial here, not very crazy though, regrettably
blubb-fish 9y ago
Confirmed - it's a frivolous plaything - very well put!
jeffdavis 9y ago
At first, I dismissed snapchat thinking "people will hack the protocol and save messages anyway, and the whole idea will fall apart". Then, I was a little envious that someone else had the idea, and I now think it was a good idea, and that I was blinded by an overly-technical analysis of their product. But it doesn't look like the couple good ideas they had were enough to make a long-term business. So, unless they do something cool in the next 12 months, RIP. Founders got a nice payday, so who cares?
afpx 9y ago
40 year old, here. I mainly use snap to play with filters with my young kids. I'd never use it for communication because the UX is horrendous. A while ago, there was an odd corporate push to try to use snap internally (was there some marketing push?). And, all of my co-workers spent lots of time brainstorming how to even use snap effectively. The swarms of 13 years olds that roam through my house only ever seem to use their mobile for Instagram, snap, and youtube. However, more recently I've noticed that the boys have been walking around with bluetooth headsets on as they have a large group chat going on in the background. Not sure what app they're using.
- colinprince 9y ago
  Discord is growing like crazy and their voice chat is easy to use and reliable for groups

fullshark 9y ago

I'm not rooting for Snap to fail, any negative comments I made (and have seen here) were because I thought their IPO price was absurd. I think they can carve out a niche and be profitable but the expectation that they grow to the size of FB / GOOGL I just don't see it, and the IPO seemed to be priced based on that. I also thought their stock set up with zero voting rights was crazy but that's a separate issue.

deepGem 9y ago
Zero voting rights make a lot of sense for the founders in today's world of activist investors. Caveat, the founders act in good faith.
- kgwgk 9y ago
  And make little sense for investors.

ghthor 9y ago

Yeah, I don't get it either. As far as I'm concerned Snap is one of the most interesting startups recently because they started with as a software company that managed to actually make a Good consumer hardware item that I wear everyday. I love my Spectacles, I wasn't even a snapchat user before they released, but they are a slick device.

debaserab2 9y ago
Do you ever feel a little creepy wearing those? I've seen a few people with them on, and my immediate gut reaction every time is to get out of their eyesight. I'm sure I'm not the only one and it makes me wonder if most spectacles owners even think about it.
- icantdrive55 9y ago
  I'm definitely getting older. I have never liked my picture taken without my permission. I've begrudgingly put up with it, but inside despise people/companies/goverment taking my picture for any reason. I just figured people under thirty despised all the picture taking? Am I wrong? I get the sexting. I wish I had this tech around in my day, but you people are o.k. with some stranger snapping your pic? It doesn't bother you when your employer makes you pose for a company picture? Or, bring surveilled when you walk into a retail establishment? Hell--I never even liked having to take that Costco pic? (By the way, you can use the pharmacy without being a member.) My point is you people don't seem to mind random people, companies, and government taking your picture? (Yes--I said you people, but hate those generational tags. I mean under 35--I guess? I don't know what's considered young anymore.)
defunctirl 9y ago
I quite like the idea of them, but I can't get past the design (which I know would look ridiculous on myself). Would be interested in playing around with a pair but they're not very common where I am.

austenallred 9y ago

I love Insta stories. It's an immersive way to see what your friends are up to. Just sit back and tap/swipe, takes 30 seconds, pretty passive.

girvo 9y ago
I dunno, my friends (in their mid-late 20s) are much more active on Snapchat for stories. Most of the people I follow on Insta aren't my friends, so their stories aren't very interesting to me

hoorayimhelping 9y ago

Where did you see hate for SNAP? GP's comment said Facebook is killing it and speculated that SNAP has no chance against them. Like 5/6 of the comment is an excellent summary of the call (on a story that is behind a paywall), and then a couple of sentences of opinion and speculation and from that you get HN hates SNAP? I don't get it.

milcron 9y ago

Used it starting in 2013, uninstalled after they started filling it with crap. For me its killer feature was how easy it was to send videos. But it's not worth all the advertising they're stuffing into the app.

lordgrenville 9y ago

HN is bearish on SNAP, just like Wall Street is. Sure, they could end up hugely successful, it would just surprise people. Even their own underwriters gave them a HOLD rating as soon as they were allowed to. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/11/snap-underwriter-morgan-stanley-downgrades-the-stock.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/11/snap-underwriter-morgan-stanl...

rickdg 9y ago

Do they have a working android app yet?

Quarrelsome 9y ago

> HN just loves to hate SNAP, and I can't really fathom why Their entire product was marketed on the lie of ephemeral messaging. That's why I've always hated it. I don't like it when people talk down to the general public like that and lie to them about what technology can and cannot do.

lmm 9y ago

Snapchat's founder always came across as hubristic in a way Facebook's wasn't. I try not to hate, but I don't like it when people act like they've made something wonderful when actually they built the thing with other people's money and made hardly any revenue.