5 ms·

Snapchat adds free phone number verification to its list of SDK perks

24 points by imartin2k 6y ago

saurik 6y ago
> Login Kit is going to power really creative, unique experiences and that’s going to be the value for partners. This is a truly hilarious---nay... ridiculous--way of describing "our login sdk also handles stuff like phone number verification".
unreal6 6y ago
I really hope that Snapchat can build out this platform. I love their core services (chatting and stories), and would trust them significantly more as a sign-in partner compared to Facebook or Google.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  Why do you trust them more? Is it just because of their relatively small size compared to the big players? Personally I wouldn't touch that company even with a barge pole. Their business model is no different than the big players, except their ads seem to be even more noxious than those peddled by the big players. Google & Facebook have a wide range of ads, both good products as well as trash, while Snapchat seems to be very focused on trashy clickbait with little valuable content. Their privacy situation is also a major problem and is not GDPR compliant (not saying the others are, but that still doesn't excuse them with breaking EU regulations). They are extremely hostile to third-party developers with significant obfuscation efforts around their private API. They are very likely to "pull a Twitter" when it comes to restricting access to their currently open APIs and leave developers stranded. Twitter also used to be very friendly towards developers, before abruptly shutting down most of their APIs and rendering products built on them completely useless (or neutered beyond any significant value), sometimes destroying entire business built around their platform. Their lunch is also being eaten by Instagram, which puts them in a risky position with regards to profitability and increases the likelihood of them doing something nasty to try turn the ship around at the expense of developers who committed to the platform.
  - parliament32 6y ago
    I'm not a huge Snapchat fanboy, but some of this doesn't make much sense. >their ads seem to be even more noxious I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway. As opposed to, ahem, Insta which injects an ad into every story you view. >They are extremely hostile to third-party developers with significant obfuscation efforts around their private API. That's kinda, you know, the entire point of their app. It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy -- ensuring snaps are ephemeral, not stealthily recorded or captured. Of course they're jumping through hoops to defend their private API. >a risky position with regards to profitability Is it? https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-show.aspx?Type=page&FilingId=13887415-236005-251545&CIK=0001564408&Index=12200 https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-s...
    - ladberg 6y ago
      When viewing people's stories all at once I feel like I get semi-NSFW ads in between every person's story, which makes me want to just leave the app.
      - parliament32 6y ago
        Maybe it's a UI thing. I only watch individual stories, from the left pane, because I really don't care about watching someone's story who I haven't talked to in six months -- if they're scrolled out of that view I probably don't care about them that much.
        ladberg 6y ago
        Yeah that makes sense. I don't use Snapchat much so when I go on every few days I just like to see everyone's stories in a row then exit.
    - Nextgrid 6y ago
      > I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway (emphasis mine) But isn’t that a bit of a problem when it comes to ads where you want people to see them if you want to get paid? So they’re bound to increase their ad intrusiveness at some point and with the quality of ads in there I’m not sure people will put up with it. > It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy Security by obscurity doesn’t really work though, it’s always going to be a game of cat & mouse and leaks are bound to happen. On the other hand, their current approach of obfuscation prevents a lot of valid & non-malicious use-cases like desktop clients, scheduled posts, etc. > Is it? Instagram still seems to be crushing them when it comes to active users, plus Facebook has the ability to run it at a loss for an insane amount of time if they wanted to, letting the competition (such as Snap) starve to death.
azinman2 6y ago
Unless you’re building a social app for the connected youth, I can’t imagine a more negative signal for a mobile app than to be associated with Snapchat. Even Facebook can be quite dubious, but at least they have users in all demographics.
- talkinghead 6y ago
  why?
  - azinman2 6y ago
    It's not associated with anything serious as a brand.
- ferrufino 6y ago
  ok boomer. I see that point for Fb, but Snapchat?
echelon 6y ago
Can Snapchat survive in a world with TikTok? I'm genuinely curious what folks thoughts are. Everyone I know that uses Snapchat has migrated to TikTok, but I personally have limited insight into these dynamics. From my perspective, even though the sharing dynamics are different, TikTok seems to capture and hold much greater attention.
- garrepi 6y ago
  I'd say they can -- especially with the Gen Z group. Snapchat is used to produce videos, images, and texts for either: all your friends (stories), a select subset of your friends (private stories), a subset of that subset (subsequent private stories), specific friend groups, etc. With TikTok, you're publishing to the world; with Snapchat you're publishing to your world.
  - chrisdalke 6y ago
    well said -- There's a fundamental difference in TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc and Snapchat. Snapchat is heavily focused on private (one person, small private group) content in contrast with the other networks which mostly focus on public content.
    - notRobot 6y ago
      > Snapchat is heavily focused on private (one person, small private group) Private secondary Instagram accounts (finstas) for smaller circles and Instagram's "share only to 'close friends'" features are taking a lot of that Snapchat market over.
      - chrisdalke 6y ago
        I still don't see Instagram used as a replacement for text messaging like Snapchat is for many people (again, just my experience in the college-age demographic). Snapchat themselves don't seem to want to be a messaging app though, probably because the path to ad revenue and real profitability is in an algorithmic feed.
irishpissedoff 6y ago
If you dont want to use your real phone number for verification. You can get a disposable number to phone verify any app at http://textita.com http://textita.com
driverdan 6y ago
What I'm seeing here is that if an app has the Snapchat SDK I won't install it or will delete it. I have no interest in sharing my phone number with Snapchat.

24 points by imartin2k 6y ago

> Login Kit is going to power really creative, unique experiences and that’s going to be the value for partners. This is a truly hilarious---nay... ridiculous--way of describing "our login sdk also handles stuff like phone number verification".

unreal6 6y ago

I really hope that Snapchat can build out this platform. I love their core services (chatting and stories), and would trust them significantly more as a sign-in partner compared to Facebook or Google.

Nextgrid 6y ago
Why do you trust them more? Is it just because of their relatively small size compared to the big players? Personally I wouldn't touch that company even with a barge pole. Their business model is no different than the big players, except their ads seem to be even more noxious than those peddled by the big players. Google & Facebook have a wide range of ads, both good products as well as trash, while Snapchat seems to be very focused on trashy clickbait with little valuable content. Their privacy situation is also a major problem and is not GDPR compliant (not saying the others are, but that still doesn't excuse them with breaking EU regulations). They are extremely hostile to third-party developers with significant obfuscation efforts around their private API. They are very likely to "pull a Twitter" when it comes to restricting access to their currently open APIs and leave developers stranded. Twitter also used to be very friendly towards developers, before abruptly shutting down most of their APIs and rendering products built on them completely useless (or neutered beyond any significant value), sometimes destroying entire business built around their platform. Their lunch is also being eaten by Instagram, which puts them in a risky position with regards to profitability and increases the likelihood of them doing something nasty to try turn the ship around at the expense of developers who committed to the platform.
- parliament32 6y ago
  I'm not a huge Snapchat fanboy, but some of this doesn't make much sense. >their ads seem to be even more noxious I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway. As opposed to, ahem, Insta which injects an ad into every story you view. >They are extremely hostile to third-party developers with significant obfuscation efforts around their private API. That's kinda, you know, the entire point of their app. It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy -- ensuring snaps are ephemeral, not stealthily recorded or captured. Of course they're jumping through hoops to defend their private API. >a risky position with regards to profitability Is it? https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-show.aspx?Type=page&FilingId=13887415-236005-251545&CIK=0001564408&Index=12200 https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/us/snap_inc/SEC/sec-s...
  - ladberg 6y ago
    When viewing people's stories all at once I feel like I get semi-NSFW ads in between every person's story, which makes me want to just leave the app.
    - parliament32 6y ago
      Maybe it's a UI thing. I only watch individual stories, from the left pane, because I really don't care about watching someone's story who I haven't talked to in six months -- if they're scrolled out of that view I probably don't care about them that much.
      - ladberg 6y ago
        Yeah that makes sense. I don't use Snapchat much so when I go on every few days I just like to see everyone's stories in a row then exit.
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    > I don't think I've ever seen an ad in Snapchat. It's all buried in the Discover page that nobody uses anyway (emphasis mine) But isn’t that a bit of a problem when it comes to ads where you want people to see them if you want to get paid? So they’re bound to increase their ad intrusiveness at some point and with the quality of ads in there I’m not sure people will put up with it. > It's all geared around ensuring the user's privacy Security by obscurity doesn’t really work though, it’s always going to be a game of cat & mouse and leaks are bound to happen. On the other hand, their current approach of obfuscation prevents a lot of valid & non-malicious use-cases like desktop clients, scheduled posts, etc. > Is it? Instagram still seems to be crushing them when it comes to active users, plus Facebook has the ability to run it at a loss for an insane amount of time if they wanted to, letting the competition (such as Snap) starve to death.

azinman2 6y ago

Unless you’re building a social app for the connected youth, I can’t imagine a more negative signal for a mobile app than to be associated with Snapchat. Even Facebook can be quite dubious, but at least they have users in all demographics.

talkinghead 6y ago
why?
- azinman2 6y ago
  It's not associated with anything serious as a brand.
ferrufino 6y ago
ok boomer. I see that point for Fb, but Snapchat?

echelon 6y ago

Can Snapchat survive in a world with TikTok? I'm genuinely curious what folks thoughts are. Everyone I know that uses Snapchat has migrated to TikTok, but I personally have limited insight into these dynamics. From my perspective, even though the sharing dynamics are different, TikTok seems to capture and hold much greater attention.

garrepi 6y ago
I'd say they can -- especially with the Gen Z group. Snapchat is used to produce videos, images, and texts for either: all your friends (stories), a select subset of your friends (private stories), a subset of that subset (subsequent private stories), specific friend groups, etc. With TikTok, you're publishing to the world; with Snapchat you're publishing to your world.
- chrisdalke 6y ago
  well said -- There's a fundamental difference in TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc and Snapchat. Snapchat is heavily focused on private (one person, small private group) content in contrast with the other networks which mostly focus on public content.
  - notRobot 6y ago
    > Snapchat is heavily focused on private (one person, small private group) Private secondary Instagram accounts (finstas) for smaller circles and Instagram's "share only to 'close friends'" features are taking a lot of that Snapchat market over.
    - chrisdalke 6y ago
      I still don't see Instagram used as a replacement for text messaging like Snapchat is for many people (again, just my experience in the college-age demographic). Snapchat themselves don't seem to want to be a messaging app though, probably because the path to ad revenue and real profitability is in an algorithmic feed.

irishpissedoff 6y ago

If you dont want to use your real phone number for verification. You can get a disposable number to phone verify any app at http://textita.com http://textita.com

driverdan 6y ago

What I'm seeing here is that if an app has the Snapchat SDK I won't install it or will delete it. I have no interest in sharing my phone number with Snapchat.