It may be called Snapchat but, until today, you couldn’t actually chat using the app. Sure, you could send lols video messages to your friends and they could take a screenshot, only that was about it. The video basically vapourised and there was no further conversation.
Today, the people behind the app announced new features, including video chat and text messaging. They’re calling it er, Chat.
They thought that the previous incarnation lacked ‘presence’. That’s actually true. It did. Now you’ll be able to tell when you have the full attention of your friends. It's not groundbreaking, it's just video chatting basically, but it means you can video chat to the people you connect with in Snapchat.
As for the text element, like the videos, the chats disappear. This happens after you’ve left the chat screen. Yes, they know you can still take screen shots of convos for posterity, or as they put it ‘to save anything you’d like to keep (addresses, to-do lists, etc.)!’ Or as we put it 'to save the time the boy tells you he loves you, or something else kind of juicy you want to share with your extended friend group/the world'. Remember: N_ever_ say or show anything to anyone that you would hate to be shared with everyone you know. When it comes to the internet, trust no one #motto4lyfe.
The app will let you know when your friends are online, so there’s no random guessing required to see who’s around to chat while you’re waiting for the bus or whatever. To video chat, you just press and hold to share live video.
The new text message format is a bazillion times more efficient than the previous way you would have to send texts to your fellow Snapchatters, which meant adding text to a blank image. Ain't nobody got time for that.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.