Snapchat, I don't get it


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My brother has been pestering me recently to get Snapchat. After refusing for a few weeks, I finally caved and downloaded it. I created an account, and waited for him to send me something. After a few days of trying to use it, I have come to the conclusion that I am either missing something incredibly obvious or it is literally the most unusable application in existence.

 

From my understanding, when you receive a message, you have to hold down the message in the conversation in order to view what they sent you; be it an image or video. And you have to continue to hold your finger down while viewing the message. If you move your finger, take it off the screen, stop viewing it, or view it for the maximum amount of time (5 seconds maybe?) it is deleted forever. All of this on top of the fact that because you have to hold your finger down to view the message, your finger is ALWAYS in the way of the content.

 

Seriously, am I missing something? This is the worst UX design I have ever encountered. Why does the application have to delete the message after you view it? Why can't they be saved so you can have a chat history? How do people use this crap? How has it gotten so popular?

 

I just don't get it.

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One word...boobs! haha

 

It's not great design, but you do realise that the finger doesn't have to be in the middle of the screen? :p Oh and I was curious so looked up the whole keeping your finger on the screen thing and it's supposed to make it more difficult to take screenshots of the content.

 

I use it for sending silly videos/pictures to friends and family. 

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My brother has been pestering me recently to get Snapchat. After refusing for a few weeks, I finally caved and downloaded it. I created an account, and waited for him to send me something. After a few days of trying to use it, I have come to the conclusion that I am either missing something incredibly obvious or it is literally the most unusable application in existence.

 

From my understanding, when you receive a message, you have to hold down the message in the conversation in order to view what they sent you; be it an image or video. And you have to continue to hold your finger down while viewing the message. If you move your finger, take it off the screen, stop viewing it, or view it for the maximum amount of time (5 seconds maybe?) it is deleted forever. All of this on top of the fact that because you have to hold your finger down to view the message, your finger is ALWAYS in the way of the content.

 

Seriously, am I missing something? This is the worst UX design I have ever encountered. Why does the application have to delete the message after you view it? Why can't they be saved so you can have a chat history? How do people use this crap? How has it gotten so popular?

 

I just don't get it.

might as well use google hangouts... lol I totally agree with you man

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most social network that people are using is stupid IMO. I understand Facebook and Twitter, but things like Vine and Instagram really doesn't make any sense to me.

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The honest truth? It was made purely for girls/guys to take nudes of themselves and send it to their significant other, without the fear that that other will save the picture and upload it to the internet. But, it's all a lie. You can save that photo without them knowing and upload it to the Internet, without any problems; there's sites out there specifically for that purpose (don't do

to me. Just get on google or reddit).
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most social network that people are using is stupid IMO. I understand Facebook and Twitter, but things like Vine and Instagram really doesn't make any sense to me.

 

If you think you're stupid, you're probably not the target audience. 

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Why does the application have to delete the message after you view it? Why can't they be saved so you can have a chat history? How do people use this crap? How has it gotten so popular?

 

I just don't get it.

 

 

The honest truth? It was made purely for girls/guys to take nudes of themselves and send it to their significant other, without the fear that that other will save the picture and upload it to the internet.

Pupik is right on the money, from my understanding of the application. The whole point was that the messages couldn't be saved by the other party, meaning that you would - in theory - be able to send them a picture of whatever you want without fear of the picture being saved. Looking at the celebrity scandal that has happened over the past month or so, those people would have probably preferred an application like snapchat rather than having those pictures saved to be potentially distributed.

Although also as Pupik points out, it doesn't work. There are ways of saving the media that you receive from someone else if you know how.

All that said though, I'm with you, spacer. I downloaded it once for about 5 minutes just to see what the fuss was about. Couldn't find a reason for me to be using it, so I uninstalled it.

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The honest truth? It was made purely for girls/guys to take nudes of themselves and send it to their significant other, without the fear that that other will save the picture and upload it to the internet. But, it's all a lie. You can save that photo without them knowing and upload it to the Internet, without any problems; there's sites out there specifically for that purpose (don't do

to me. Just get on google or reddit).

Quoted for teh truth...

 

However... I think it's more for teasing, sexting, cheating...   I used to send "photos" to both my exes over whatsapp, never did it cross my mind they were going to make them public or viceversa... The only thing I did was ask them to password protect in case of losing/being stolen.

 

Then again, my most recent ex, used to sent dumbass images to her friends (male and female), duck face, trying to emulate their boobs on their elbow... In the end it boils down to "this is whats trending, lets use it"

 

edit: you CAN screenshot... the other party just gets noticed... 

most social network that people are using is stupid IMO. I understand Facebook and Twitter, but things like Vine and Instagram really doesn't make any sense to me.

I kinda get vine... but instagram... I ask people "oh its like facebook except without everything else, it's just for photos..." So... you have photos on facebook AND instagram? ok...

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Pupik is right on the money, from my understanding of the application. The whole point was that the messages couldn't be saved by the other party, meaning that you would - in theory - be able to send them a picture of whatever you want without fear of the picture being saved. Looking at the celebrity scandal that has happened over the past month or so, those people would have probably preferred an application like snapchat rather than having those pictures saved to be potentially distributed.

Although also as Pupik points out, it doesn't work. There are ways of saving the media that you receive from someone else if you know how.

All that said though, I'm with you, spacer. I downloaded it once for about 5 minutes just to see what the fuss was about. Couldn't find a reason for me to be using it, so I uninstalled it.

 

 

Nick, if you look anything like your avatar i will install it for you to send me pics ;) ;) lol

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I kinda get vine... but instagram... I ask people "oh its like facebook except without everything else, it's just for photos..." So... you have photos on facebook AND instagram? ok...

 

Instagram is the less professional version of Flickr. At least that's how I see it. 

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so you have... facebook, instagram AND flickr :p

 

Hah yep. It's similar to having Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin.

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If you think you're stupid, you're probably not the target audience. 

 

This, and apparently you haven't used the app long enough to really give a good enough opinion after a few days. There's an option to replay a snap sent to you, but it can and only must be viewed in that session you're within the app or you will not be able to review it again. Thats something you have to enable as its not on by default.

 

Also there's an option called "My Story" that allows you to store your snaps up to 24 hours so really so if you want to view something over you can, I should note while holding down your finger viewing someones snap you can tap simultaneously to skip the current snap and move forward to the next. Like @dipsylalapo said you're probably not the target audience. There's a lot more to snapchat than what you currently say. Use it for a couple more days or find someone to follow or you should find people to follow you- if you're the person that don't mind sharing snaps of your life. If thats not you then....

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The honest truth? It was made purely for girls/guys to take nudes of themselves and send it to their significant other, without the fear that that other will save the picture and upload it to the internet. But, it's all a lie. You can save that photo without them knowing and upload it to the Internet, without any problems; there's sites out there specifically for that purpose (don't do

to me. Just get on google or reddit).

 

Can't the person getting the picture just hold down the screen shot key combo on android and take a picture of the screen?

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I think fads/things like Snapchat are stupid.  And I wont be pressured to download or use something.  I don't use pintrest or instagram either.   Plus, in my experience, i find these apps in use more by kids or females.

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Can't the person getting the picture just hold down the screen shot key combo on android and take a picture of the screen?

 

Yes, I should also note the app and the user will be notified a screenshot was taken- so ya they will know if you've taken a screenshot of his/her snaps

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Yes, I should also note the app and the user will notify a screenshot was taken.

 

ya so? They are notified. But the other person still has a picture of their ######.

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This, and apparently you haven't used the app long enough to really give a good enough opinion after a few days. There's an option to replay a snap sent to you, but it can and only must be viewed in that session you're within the app or you will not be able to review it again. Thats something you have to enable as its not on by default.

 

Also there's an option called "My Story" that allows you to store your snaps up to 24 hours so really so if you want to view something over you can, I should note while holding down your finger viewing someones snap you can tap simultaneously to skip the current snap and move forward to the next. Like @dipsylalapo said you're probably not the target audience. There's a lot more to snapchat than what you currently say. Use it for a couple more days or find someone to follow or you should find people to follow you- if you're the person that don't mind sharing snaps of your life. If thats not you then....

I have that setting turned on, but like you said, it only saves it as long as you're in that conversation. As soon as you go back a page or switch apps, it's gone. So I'd argue that that particular setting is near useless.

 

It also still doesn't explain why you have to tap and hold in order to view a message. It's cumbersome and your finger is in the way. And no, my finger is not in the middle of the screen. It's off to the side and however far down the screen the snap was in the conversation.

 

I understand now why snaps aren't saved. (It's a stupid reason, but at least I understand it now) And I do have a desire to share funny pics and videos with friends, so I believe I am in the target audience.

 

What else is there to the app? Can you give specifics? So far it seems like an app primarily used to share pics and videos, but it makes it incredibly difficult to consume that content.

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most social network that people are using is stupid IMO. I understand Facebook and Twitter, but things like Vine and Instagram really doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm not sure what's confusing with those examples.

You have facebook which basically does everything but eveyone claims to hate.

You have twitter which is basically just for short facebook status updates only.  You claim you get twitter, well if you accept that it's ok to have a social network tool that just posts status updates why is it dificult to understand having one that just posts pictures (Instagram) or short videos (Vine).

You can do ALL of these things on Facebook of course but since that's so last week and you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.

 

Which one you use is mostly just current trends as others have said.  They aren't pointless though because in some cases the reason one now supports a capability is because of the competition from the other.  Vine taking off for example may have contributed to Instragram adding video support for it's feeds.  Instagram may have caused twitter to improve it's image handling, etc.

 

As for snapchat specifically it really did just start as a way to make girls feel better about sending you nude pics of them. I'm still amazed women are stupid enough to take these pictures in the first place, I have ZERO sympathy for the poor celebrities whose nude photos leaked from the cloud.  Heck some celebrities have built/boosted their careers on incidents such as that.  If my gf tells me to install snapchat and she'll send me nude photos of her though then heck yeah I'm going to install it.  If snapchat is able to convince girls to send nude photos by using their app then I'm all for that as well.  Because that's what it's for you'll get a bunch of guys who install in "just in case" hoping some girl will send them nude pics because that's just what teenage boys do.  They can tell all their friends they have snapchat and act like it's because a bunch of hot women are sending them nude pics, rofl.  As has been stated it's easy enough to work around and actually save the pics but who cares, the point is just to convice women to send those nude pics not actually make them secure.  It's not important if they are ACTUALLY secure or not, just that women feel comfortable enough to send the pics.  Since most aren't going to do the research it works pretty well.

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I have that setting turned on, but like you said, it only saves it as long as you're in that conversation. As soon as you go back a page or switch apps, it's gone. So I'd argue that that particular setting is near useless.

 

It also still doesn't explain why you have to tap and hold in order to view a message. It's cumbersome and your finger is in the way. And no, my finger is not in the middle of the screen. It's off to the side and however far down the screen the snap was in the conversation.

 

I understand now why snaps aren't saved. (It's a stupid reason, but at least I understand it now) And I do have a desire to share funny pics and videos with friends, so I believe I am in the target audience.

 

What else is there to the app? Can you give specifics? So far it seems like an app primarily used to share pics and videos, but it makes it incredibly difficult to consume that content.

 

 

The whole point of the app is the idea of pictures and videos that are sent aren't saved. So moving back and forth works, think of it as an all you eat place, whilst you're in the restaurant you indulge, as soon as you step out, that privilege is taken away from you. 

 

Holding the screen to view the pictures/videos as I said is to make it difficult to take screenshots, notice I said difficult and not impossible.  :shiftyninja: and to sound Apple I think you're doing it wrong. I've been using Snapchat and I never find my finger to be in the way :S

 

If you think it's a stupid reason, again you're showing that you're not the target audience. There are plenty of other ways to share pics and vids that don't delete the pic use those. Snapchat is purely for those who want to send pics/vids without them saving. 

 

Other features include stories, which have been described above. You can now chat with other users via Snapchat and they've also introduced featured stories where people can upload pics/vids from events they've been too. Things like the recent FIFA World Cup and a festival called Tomorrowland. 

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