[marksbren]

Snapchat's timeout feature is not just a novelty, is it allowing for a whole different type of digital communication. The sender does not have to worry about where their image might show up. It frees people to take goofy photos and act more naturally (as opposed to all the posed, staged shots on Instagram and Facebook).

[kevando]

I agree it frees people up to do the goofy, but as someone who's been doing the goofy my whole life, snapchat does nothing to add value in that respect. It just promotes it and now people understand the goofy.

[Kiro]

Regardless if you are goofy or not SnapChat enables you to share that goofiness in a whole new way. You wouldn't send the stuff you send on SnapChat in a text or share it on Facebook.

And it's about much more than just being goofy. You share random things from your daily life that are interesting but not interesting enough to be sent in a text or be posted on Facebook.

[angryasian]

I don't know why this misconception keeps getting propogated. If the motivation to save pictures is there then a person will save the pictures. I have to believe it's the fad. I mean poke had this same feature yet it never took off

[triptychs]

> If the motivation to save pictures is there then a person will save the pictures.

Considering most "snaps" are sent between friends and family these days, it's important to understand that friends aren't fucking each other over to save pictures of cats with finger-painted mustaches.

Of course, if someone is dead-set on saving a picture from Snapchat then it's possible... but Snapchat isn't about sending dick pics anymore. I believe it's outgrown that, the same way when Vine started with was essentially an amateur porn broadcasting app. For the general public, Snapchat images appear and then they go poof, but I agree with you... it's hard to stop dicks from being dicks no matter how you send your photos.

But the one objective fact about the situation is that Snapchat is still the most convenient way to send photos and videos that are reasonably guaranteed to virtually disappear. Saving them out of Snapchat secretly isn't a priority nor is it trivial for 99% of people using the service.

[angryasian]

the point is that assumption should always be made that anything you share on any service will be saved our available. I have to believe it's more the fad and brand vs this false sense of security

[cdcarter]

No, it's not that they are guaranteed to disappear. It's that there is no expectation for them to last. It is an ephemeral image that doesn't need to be saved or managed or taken with the gravitas that living in your camera roll or being posted for the rest of time has.

[angryasian]

taking the perspective of the receiver is hard to justify as well. I mean really deleting a mms or just disabling it in any of the messaging services really is not that hard.

[gfodor]

And yet, here we are with snapchat being hugely successful. Maybe you just don't understand what makes a product like this successful, and why things that are "not that hard" may be something that literally nobody does for a certain reason because they are hard enough.

[angryasian]

im not saying its not hard and im not saying I dont' understand it, but to claim its something more than just the fad and brand is what im questioning.

[Kiro]

You send random things in SnapChat since you know it won't clutter your receiver's phone. It enables a whole new type of conversation and I'm sorry if you don't understand that. Fad or not SnapChat is a big part of me and my friends' life right now.