By JACKSON CRUMBLY
Snapchat is the most recent trending app. It released in September of last year and has been on top of the charts for the last two months. It is a fun new way to communicate with friends through picture messaging.
Snapchat is social networking through pictures between Snapchat users. One can take a picture and send it to a friend through the app. Before sending, drawings and text can be applied to the photo. One can also select the amount of time the friend can view it. This insures that one can send a goofy picture and not have to worry about it being seen by the whole school or even world through the Internet. The picture can not be sent along or shared through Snapchat.
Snapchat requires the friend who receives the photo to keep a finger on the picture for the amount of time they look at it. If they remove their finger, the picture will go away making it harder to take a screenshot of it. But it is not impossible to do so. However, if the viewer takes a screenshot the app alerts the sender of the picture. This way the sender is aware the photo has been captured and can try to stop it from being spread.
One can download Snapchat at the “App Store” for free. After making a username and password one can search for friends and start sending out pictures. The user has an option of letting the friend who received the picture see it for 1 to 10 seconds, then it disappears and can not be seen again.
Snapchat thought of everything to ensure the user’s privacy. Although one should never trust that his pictures will always be private and only seen by the person it was intended for, it is a more reliable way to send pictures to friends than through text messages.