Snapchat’s New Update: What It Means For You & Silicon Valley

Snapchat, the popular photo sharing app has released a new update in which it will now implement video chat and instant messaging. This is a new platform for the growing application and should make an impact on the tech industry. The California based company was founded by two Stanford University students and was initially released in September 2011.

According to blog.snapchat.com:

 "Swipe right on a friend’s name in your Snapchat inbox to start chatting. When you leave the chat screen, messages viewed by both you and your friend will be cleared – but either of you can always tap or screenshot to save anything you’d like to keep (addresses, to-do lists, etc.)!" 

This move should come as no surprise to those savvy to the on goings in Silicon Valley. Snapchat was initally offered a $3 billion buyout from Social Media giant Facebook in November 2013.Then a follow up of $4 Billion from Google the following week. Both offers were declined and thus wide speculation began as to why this could be. $4 Billion is a sizeable chunk of change for two recent graduates. This is especially remarkable because as of October 2012 they were not turning a profit at all. $4 Billion dollar growth in 13 months and still less than satisfied. It was obvious that Snapchat had plans to grow beyond mere photo sharing  and is well on its way to an empire.

For those unfamiliar, the premise of the app is to capture an image or a video and instantly share it with someone else, who also has the Snapchat App on their phone or tablet. The image then deletes itself immediately after its opening and is erased from the Snapchat servers for good. If the recipient screenshots the image, the sender is alerted. Though there have been a handful of sexting controversies that surround this future tech giant, they have managed to keep their reputation clean overall.

With updates to the app, users eventually gained the ability to save pictures that are captured and with the introduction of the Snapchat story in October 2013 they can be viewed multiple times before being erased. Users' images and videos are saved for 24 hours  and can be viewed multiple times by anyone on the friends list of the one posting the content.

The introduction of video chat and instant messaging will not be an easy field for Snapchat to gain traction in. Though they have millions of users, those looking to message or video chat on their phones have plenty of options already. With Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, WhatsApp and of course Skype the question remains as to how Snapchat will differentiate itself. What exactly will it provide to its users that these other messengers and Silicon Valley giants cannot provide already.

Can Snapchat become part of your New York Systems Integration project to connect everything on the cloud? Or will this become obsolete. Find out how video sharing can be implemented into your New York Home Automation improvement today.