More than Simply Sending a Photo

Snapchat has become far more than just sending a picture that will disappear after a short time span. Snapchat’s unique ingredient is the ability to edit images, through filters, drawing tools, and augmented reality.

 

The implementation of “Lenses” to Snapchat’s repertoire was essential as it is one of the most popular feature of the application.

 

By turning on the front camera so that your face is on the phone’s screen as if one were intending on taking a selfie, then tapping and holding the selection on your face until a mesh appears then release. Following this, Snapchat will load a handful of lenses to the side of the capture button. The user can shift between the various lenses, changing the filter and/or animation that will be shown on the screen, as seen in the example below.  

 

A further extension of the lenses tool was the ability to face swap in Snapchat. Even though this technology existed already, many users were thrilled by the ability to faceswap with your friends and family. So how do you even face swap? and incase you did not know. I will also supply a short summary of what exactly is this face swap.

 

Tap and hold on your face while having Snapchat open in selfie mode.  After scrolling through the various options in that are on the side of the capture button, make sure to select the face swap selection. Now just line up two faces as displayed on the screen and go on and merge yourself into anyone’s body.

 

Lastly, just a quick touch on the standard image filters that are available for when editing an image in Snapchat. So once you’ve taken a photo, simply swipe left or right and you’ll see a message which says ‘turn on filters’. Select the “I want filters” button and continue onwards to the “additional services” part of the settings menu where you can tick the filters box. Butw pay attention, as you’ll need to enable location to be able to switch them on and for some to work properly.

 

So much more than simply just sending a photo

Diving into Snapchat’s “Discover” Feature

Snapchat’s release of the “Discover” feature was a huge update. It allowed for users to view top news stories in the form of a Snapchat story, that would disappear after 24 hours and be replaced with fresh and new content.

In order to cover a wide range of interests, Snapchat partnered up with CNN, Vice, Yahoo News, Comedy Central, National Geographic, Daily Mail, ESPN, Food Network, and Cosmopolitan. So when having the application open you will have to swipe once right to the stories menu and then another time to reach the discover menu. Then tapping on any of the media story logos will swallow you into their story.

So how many people actually use this feature?

A field study by Variety showed that 47% of Millennials (or in the case of this experiment,  13-24 year old U.S. citizens were used) roughly check the discover feature on a daily or multiple times per day.

But is it all worth it for investing into these Discover ads which can cost up to and more than $50,000 a day! For some these sponsorings could be too much, yet others didn’t really feel too annoyed about it. As for whether the advertising levels were seen as acceptable, only 12% felt there was too many ads, while just under 50% deemed the number “tolerable”.

Most people use Snapchat as a form of communication to share images and short text messages with friends. Other even simply use the app just to discover and follow the brands and celebrities. 5% of the respondents mentioned that they “only or mostly” use the Discover feature for following celebrities and brands.

Even though Snapchat was originally seen as a short messaging application for sending 1 to 10 second videos to you friends, it has now grown into much more. Capable of keeping up with celebrities, reporting about major news events and also fun and entertaining news. But when asked about what was your favorite feature of Snapchat; only 9% voted for seeing the Discover stories. Creating your own stories was voted the most attractive feature of the application.

So what do you think of the Discover feature? And do you use it at all?

Snapchat Map? Insights to how this feature is annoying many people!

So back in June after Snapchat new application feature release: Snap Map! So you ask yourself what is this feature? Well you can compare it with like having your own Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter.

What this feature does is that it lets you see where all your friends are around the world. Sounds great at first. This app was thought to show snaps of nearby or global sporting events, celebrations, breaking news, and more from all across the world. And of course, if you and a friend follow one another and share your location with each other, so that you can always see what your friends are up to and where they are at. Yet this in particular has already caused frustration and arguments between many friends and relationships. Seeing lying boy and girlfriends and seeing where you didn’t get invited too are just some examples of what could possibly happen.

The app has caused a bunch of reactions online. Due to all the possibilities of catching your friends and family that could possibly be lying about the place where they are. Friends can track your location and see your location and movement at any time (Or only if connected online).

Here are some reaction and comments made on twitter about the new Snap Map:

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It’s easy to get started — just pinch to zoom out and view the Map!

And if you don’t feel like sharing this information with your friends. You can always continue in Ghost Mode and keep your location to yourself.