5 ms·

Snapchat Isn’t Just for Sexting

8 points by scottrblock 14y ago

ynniv 14y ago
So it's not just about sexting, but communicating by sending pictures to another smartphone? What's next, short messages and duplex voice chat? </sarcasm>
ryandvm 14y ago
As somebody that tried to peddle a Snapchat competitor for Android (before Snapchat blew up), yes, it's pretty much just for sexting. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.privy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.pr...
martythemaniak 14y ago
A bit off-topic, but since I heard about Snapchat I've been wondering: Couldn't they almost guarantee* a self-destruct? Right now, they notify the sender if the receiver takes a screenshot right, but don't to anything to actually prevent that screenshot. Can't they slice the image into many small parts, group them into N groups, then flash each group for 1/Nth of a second, essentially creating a looping video out of an image? A screenshot would then only take the current frame buffer, which would be only a part of the image and hopefully not useful. The image would have ghostly appearance, but it'd offer much better protection. OTOH, this sounds like an overly-complicated technical solution - after all notification only is much simpler and seem to offer a "good enough" solution. *of course, it'd be very hard to protect anything when sending bits to someone else - someone can patch the app to get rid of the timer, dump the image to disk etc etc.
- Domenic_S 14y ago
  Check this out --> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639
- corin_ 14y ago
  POC: http://blog.persistent.info/2012/12/screenshot-proof-images-via-temporal.html http://blog.persistent.info/2012/12/screenshot-proof-images-... HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639
- cbhl 14y ago
  There's the same problem that every form of DRM has: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
- ynniv 14y ago
  Any animation fast enough to look like a coherent image is easily captured by an external camera as a single image.
tremblanc 14y ago
Asking this question in earnest. What other applications does one use this apart from sexting? I thought of it, even read articles that talk about how it changes how we communicate, etc. I just can't think of a use for this.

8 points by scottrblock 14y ago

ynniv 14y ago

So it's not just about sexting, but communicating by sending pictures to another smartphone? What's next, short messages and duplex voice chat? </sarcasm>

ryandvm 14y ago

As somebody that tried to peddle a Snapchat competitor for Android (before Snapchat blew up), yes, it's pretty much just for sexting. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.privy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.pr...

martythemaniak 14y ago

A bit off-topic, but since I heard about Snapchat I've been wondering: Couldn't they almost guarantee* a self-destruct? Right now, they notify the sender if the receiver takes a screenshot right, but don't to anything to actually prevent that screenshot. Can't they slice the image into many small parts, group them into N groups, then flash each group for 1/Nth of a second, essentially creating a looping video out of an image? A screenshot would then only take the current frame buffer, which would be only a part of the image and hopefully not useful. The image would have ghostly appearance, but it'd offer much better protection. OTOH, this sounds like an overly-complicated technical solution - after all notification only is much simpler and seem to offer a "good enough" solution. *of course, it'd be very hard to protect anything when sending bits to someone else - someone can patch the app to get rid of the timer, dump the image to disk etc etc.

Domenic_S 14y ago
Check this out --> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639
corin_ 14y ago
POC: http://blog.persistent.info/2012/12/screenshot-proof-images-via-temporal.html http://blog.persistent.info/2012/12/screenshot-proof-images-... HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639
cbhl 14y ago
There's the same problem that every form of DRM has: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
ynniv 14y ago
Any animation fast enough to look like a coherent image is easily captured by an external camera as a single image.

tremblanc 14y ago

Asking this question in earnest. What other applications does one use this apart from sexting? I thought of it, even read articles that talk about how it changes how we communicate, etc. I just can't think of a use for this.