Everyone is involved in instant messaging, but what if you can make your conversations more fun by adding images to it? Images often describe your situation in a better way, and so Snapchat makes your conversation more interesting and enjoyable. Snapchat lets you snap your best moments and share them with your friends in the form of a message. It also allows capturing video moments to make the second person experience your moments and involve them in it. In fact, it is the easiest and the best way to communicate with your friends rather than using the regular text messages which indicate nothing but just words.
Snapchat is the brainchild of two Stanford University students, Evan Spiegel, and Frank Reginald Brown. Snapchat was formed in the year 2011 where Spiegel was the product design major and formerly published this app with the name ‘Picaboo’. The app was launched first for iOS devices only and two months after the release; it was renamed as Snapchat. Snapchat for Android was first released in November 2012. (Source: Wikipedia)
Features of Snapchat
Send stickers, audio notes, video notes, and calls.
More than 200 stickers available for private chats.
Record 10 seconds of video.
Loop videos while watching them.
Send multiple images in Chat 2.0.
Send images while making audio/video calls.
Add filters, lenses, special effects to images and videos.
You might turn away from Snapchat if you capture shitty images that fail to create an interesting conversation. So to use the app, you should learn how to shoot the right image or video and add more fun to your chats. Snapchat is considered as one of the most addictive apps in the industry; even you might not feel it at your first usage.
Unlike Instagram or Twitter, Snapchat doesn’t let you change your username often. So be very careful to choose a username that sounds too interesting and that attracts users. You can list down a set of available usernames and decide which would suit the best for you. Don’t forget to add your personal information on your profile to provide additional details to users. Choose your privacy options like who can view your postings, find you with mobile number and who can contact you. You can turn on filters by going to Settings > Manage.
Clicking pictures through Snapchat should not only portray your image, but it should tell your friend about the story about that particular moment. This is the key reason most users fail to continue using Snapchat because their images are simply crappy and uninteresting. Snapchat uses your phone camera, which is integrated with the app, and it allows applying filters and effects to your pictures. You can apply different overlays on your snaps depending on your location, so make sure your location is enabled in the app. You can also apply more than one filter in a single snap by choosing a primary filter and then swiping your finger left or right.
Apart from filtering, Snapchat lets you insert emojis, drawings and texts to your images with the T pencil or sticker icon. It will add some fun effects in the conversation to make it more entertaining and exciting. You can also add animations to videos, and this might differ according to your devices. Snapchat also uses a facial recognition tool to detect faces and apply horrifying effects on your face. For this, you need to focus on your phone camera and hold it unless a spiderweb-like graphic appears on your face. To change the effect, you need to swipe through your phone screen to view the different lenses on the bottom of the screen.
Video calling can be done with the camera icon within the app, which works quite similar to Skype or Facebook video calling. Once the call is answered, both the messengers can share images, texts and audio messages in the same thread. You can also send 10 seconds of video clips as bubble messages, and those can be played within the conversation. For video calling, simply hold down the camera icon to record and to end it, remove your finger from it.
From more than 300 stickers, you can choose the right sticker that expresses your mood. Stickers are a fun way to cheer up your friends and highlight your mood and so, this feature adds some extra importance to the app.
Snapchat automatically plays the next story as soon as you finish the previous one, hence providing you with a smoother user experience and makes your journey with Snapchat even more enhanced.
Snapchat is currently available for two major platforms- Android and iOS. The iOS app is compatible with iOS 7 or later and it works on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The Android app works with almost all devices and it is available for free from the Google Play Store.
Download Snapchat for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
If you are a blog owner, then you can use Snapchat to market your blog. You might be wondering how Snapchat can help with your blog because it is just a story telling app. That’s right. Snapchat features Snap Story that lets you tell your story to your followers. Being a blogger you are already great in creating content, so similarly you can promote that content in Snapchat in the form of a story. Create a video in an interesting way so that users find it worth watching. It is a great and effective way to market your blog other than using the regular social networking sites those couldn’t bring better outcomes.
Secondly, if you are an event blogger, then you can try the Live Events feature in Snapchat, which is more like watching a live TV show. Shoot some random videos that highlight the event and upload it into the app. One of the Live Events examples is the Grammy Music Awards that covered the important aspects of the event.
So Snapchat is not just an entertainment app, but it is also great as a marketing application that may give your better result than many other apps.
Are you a regular user of Snapchat? Do you promote your blog contents using Snapchat? If you do promote your blog posts using Snapchat, please let me know your experience in the comments column so that I can come up with more ideas for my forthcoming posts.
For your success.
Priyanka Bhowmick
Author Bio:
Image Courtesy: Screenshot from www.snapchat.com
©2016Digitaldimensions4u.com The content is copyrighted to Reji Stephenson and may not be reproduced on other websites.
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View Comments
Thanks for sharing. Very useful information. Haven't used snapshot till date but would definitely give a try
Hi Stella,
Thanks for the visit and good to hear that you will try Snapchat soon.
Have a great time blogging.
Regards
Reji Stephenson
Definitely. Thanks :)
My nieces and nephews use snapchat all the time but I have never really taken to it. Thanks for sharing though.
Enjoy the journey!
Hi Mandy,
Really sorry for the very late reply. Glad that you read the post and thank you for the comment.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
This would be a great activity for our Digital Literacy for EFL Students course. Thanks a lot!
Hi Pero,
Thank you for the visit and the comment. Hoping to see you again.
Best regards
Reji Stephenson
Priyanka Bhowmick ! love the way you write that blog. You have just clearly described the benefits of how snapcht will be influential for the bloggers so as to attracts the audience towards their site.
Hi Van Miguel,
Thanks for the visit and the encouraging words.
Have a great time.
Regards
Reji Stephenson
Hi Reji,
Very useful information
Thank you for sharing
Thanks for the visit and the comment.