What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app developed by Snap Inc. The pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time and then will become inaccessible to their recipients.
Compared to other social media platforms, Snapchat has younger users. The network reported 210 million daily active users towards the end of 2019. Most users are in the U.S. For 41% of teens, Snapchat is the most important social network.
Snapchat was focused on private photo sharing, but now users can use it for different tasks, including video chatting, creating Bitmoji avatars and sending short videos.
The reason why Snapchat is popular is that it has many special features that other platforms don’t have.
At first, the snap story only lasts 24 hours. It is nice especially when you posted some embarrassingly funny things that you want others to forget. However, it also has a disadvantage. Users cannot watch the stories again unless they save these stories on their phones.
Second, users know if others take screenshots. Many people really like to share the screenshots of chats on social media accounts without asking their friends at first. With this feature, users can get noticed whenever others want to share the screenshots.
Last but not least, users can see the locations of friends. Meanwhile, they can decide whether they want to share their locations with their friends. They can also choose to hide locations from particular people.
To recap, Snapchat is popular among young people. This is because nearly everything on it is ephemeral. Thus, young people feel safe when sharing some embarrassingly funny videos. With its unique features, it stands out from the rest of other social media apps.
Sources I use as references:
Larissa Gao 