Social media for young people: what is snapchat??
When young people are snapchatters and "taking snaps talking, adults usually only understand train station. For the app, which almost five years ago was initially used only for sexting, is now all the rage among young people aged 14-22 years and bears the name "snapchat". With 130 million active users a day, who view seven billion snaps a day, the app's popularity is only just behind facebook. Find out here how it works, what makes it so special and why stars are also using it more and more often:
1. What is snapchat?
Snapchat is a free app for the operating systems ios and android, which can be used on smartphones and tablets. With it you can send pictures and videos that will be shown to your friends for up to ten seconds or have conversations that will automatically delete themselves. That's why the app's logo is a ghost: it means that the snaps "appear as if by magic" disappear.
The media is not saved by itself, but must be saved by the sender before it is sent out. The receiver can – unwanted – also make a screenshot of it. Friends can be found in the app through their individual usernames. The whole thing allows a fast, direct and uncomplicated exchange.
How snapchat works: instructions, tips and tricks
2. Where snapchat comes from?
The app was launched in september 2011 in los angeles. Already years ago the developers were offered three billion dollars for their app by facebook – they turned it down. But snapchat had a disreputable reputation in its early years, because it was mainly used to send nude pictures. The fact that the pictures are not saved and can only be seen for a short time is what made it so appealing.
3. What makes the app so special?
Meanwhile, sending pictures and videos is no longer the main function of snapchat. As the app has briefly disappeared from users' minds, developers have come up with many new features. This includes, above all, that you can now also add your snaps to your "snapchat story" can add. It can be accessed by friends for a limited time of 24 hours and can be repeated at will. At the end of this one day, the virtual diary will be deleted automatically. The function allows you to be "live" with your friends at all times join in and stay up to date. Also the self-presentation makes the attraction of this function from.
The individual design options of the snaps are another fun factor for the users. There is the possibility to put filters on your pictures and videos. These show either the time, the current temperature or the speed of movement. You can also place texts, smileys and stickers on the snaps or scribble on them. In addition, there is a small selection of color filters with which the snaps can be spared. Relatively new are the so-called geo-filters: the cell phone recognizes the current location of the user through the location function and displays characters of the name of the city he is in. However, so far these are only available in major cities.
The very latest hype, however, revolves around the lenses of snapchat. The app recognizes the user's face by printing it for a long time and, for example, puts a dog or panda face on it or makes it vomit a rainbow. Users can choose from ten different lenses every day, which ensures a regular return to the app.
News portals and magazines have also discovered the app. The sponsored stories from CNN, vice or people can be found in the stories in the "discover" section-find area.
4. Why so many celebs snapchat?
Some of you may have noticed that more and more stars are using the platform to give their fans an insight into their daily lives. In 2015, kylie jenner was the undisputed snapchat queen: her snaps had the most viewers worldwide. But also selena gomez, calvin harris and rihanna share their impressions with the world. The german celebrity scene is also represented and very active with lena meyer-landrut, mario gotze and stefanie giesinger.
The strategy behind the whole thing is simple: stars want to appear authentic, less staged and not so "perfect" like instagram and co. Since no one can upload photos from their phone's photo folder, the selfies look less posed. Bloggers, it-girls and youtubers have also long discovered the platform for themselves.
In their snaps, they point out their latest videos or blog posts, among other things, and thus secure themselves more clicks. The designer and presenter bonnie strange even calls herself a pure "snapchatter" – she blogs only on the portal. The platform is also a great way to make headlines and gain attention. A few weeks ago, for example, usher posted a nude photo of herself from the steam bath.
If you still don't understand the hype surrounding the app, you can try it out for yourself: here you can find detailed instructions with all the tips and tricks.
We from the infranken-team now have our own snapchat-account too! Simply add us under the user name "infranken".