[TheBirdDog]

So, serious question...

As someone who is still a BB10 user, I have never really used it. I've seen how it works somewhat and will admit the 'faceswap' thing was pretty cool and funny.

My brother uses Snapchat as his primary means of messaging which makes it difficult to communicate with him as BB10 user without the app. Now, I'm not ruling out the option that my brother is just weird and that's why he does this. However, I'm also not convinced that even if I weren't on BB10 anymore I'd be any more 'sold' on Snapchat.

So, please enlighten me (or 'us' if anyone else is curious about the same) - what are the advantages of Snapchat over other messaging apps? Is it just the 'fun' factor? It looked cumbersome and cluttered to use as a messaging app but, like I said, I'm open to the idea that perhaps I'm missing something.

What are the greatest and unique features of Snapchat? Why do you love it so?

[Mirko935]

It's an incredibly terrible app and messaging service IMO. But some (mostly younger) people love it, we had a discussion about it recently and one person wrote a very lengthy post regarding his reasons for using it:
http://forums.crackberry.com/showthr...1#post12796379

[TheBirdDog]

It's an incredibly terrible app and messaging service IMO. But some (mostly younger) people love it, we had a discussion about it recently and one person wrote a very lengthy post regarding his reasons for using it:
http://forums.crackberry.com/showthr...1#post12796379

Thanks! It was ssilva7 who summed it up nicely:

"This is a great question because I think a lot of people have the old Snapchat in mind, and it's so much different than the initial launch vs now. I thought the same thing until mid-2016. Whatsapp/Snapchat don't fulfill the same purpose anymore. I interact with the same people across both services in a normal day. I do the bulk of chatting on Whatsapp/Fb Mgr and some pictures I may send through Whatsapp, but all video goes through Snapchat. If I'm travelling I snap my parents all the time, it's not stuff I would put on Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp because it's not "polished" enough to be immortalized. My parents send me snaps (pics/videos) of them cooking and gardening and chilling with their pets - you feel very connected to people's daily life on Snapchat. That's not really present on other services. Snapchat is a social media app more than an instant messanger, like a mashup between Instagram and Whatsapp. It really encourages oversharing because it's so risk free. Most of the time you're just dealing with photos/videos on Snapchat, not texting.

Differences:

1. Snapchat is compartmentalized. There's a list of users who have stories available to their friends list, and then private chats, that's it. There isn't a "dashboard" like Instagram or Facebook. I don't have to scroll through things I'm not interested in. If someone posts a "story" it's confined under their username, and then I can view it multiple times within 24 hours, and then it's gone. You're not demanding anyone's attention directly if you don't want to. You're not clogging up people's feed. Instagram has Stories now and Whatsapp just copied it too with the new "Statuses" (like 2 weeks ago) but no one is really using it yet.

2. More privacy. I can watch someone's story and comment on it directly without it being reported anywhere else. If you "like" something on Instagram, Facebook, etc.., it shows up on the home feed/activity feed whether you want it to or not. Last seen/read receipts on Whatsapp can cause grief too. This is major for some people. Also, it's annoying having people know you're on Whatsapp just because you have their phone number. Screenshot alerts on Snapchat are useful.

3. Disappearing messages that can be saved. Snapchat lets you save messages in private convos if you just hold it down. Then both people see the message even if they leave the app. BBM is the exact opposite, I can send a disappearing message and keep the rest of my chat visible. You can manually delete each line of convo in other apps but that can be tedious. All sketchy convos about nefarious activities and nudes -> Snapchat only, no extra work required. This is so useful if you plan to go over the border and have to cough up your device lock. Cyberdust is sort of similar to this but lacks the rest of the features Snapchat has.

4. People can't see other people's comments on your story. I'd be more open to sharing an opinion on Snapchat than Facebook, people will gang up on you in the comments haha.

5. New content only. Old people haven't invaded and spammed it with randomness yet. Instagram is starting to get tainted by old people. If someone is sending me a snap or I'm viewing a story, it's likely actually regarding THAT person. No "share" button, so you're not going to see viral memes/videos/articles that you've already seen before. Facebook was ruined by old people and the share button so that's why the youth abandoned it. Snapchat has like a discover section with articles but I don't use it and I don't even think regular users can post there.

6. Video chatting/sharing but NOT live. You could do this in other apps but this is "appropriate" on Snapchat. 10 second videos, you can post to your "story" or send to people directly. They don't have to watch it right then, they just stream it when they can and they can reply via video. And then it's always gone after. It's like you're on Skype but it's not live. My uncle travels for business and always posts snap video tours of his hotel rooms or mildly interesting quirks he finds around town. This would clutter Instagram feed/gallery quickly, run up your device storage through Whatsapp, too mundane to post on FB so people would get annoyed by spam/you don't want people to be able to refer back to it later because you're over it after, etc.. a lot of people "vent" on Snapchat.

7. The dog lens? Not about being cute. They like it because it takes away your wrinkles, acne, slims your face, makes your eyes bigger, adds highlight etc. I feel like I'm betraying people by exposing this. Dog filter = I look haggard today. Works awesome even if you're talking in a recorded video. Sometimes the lenses are just fun and you have an excuse to post a selfie without looking like (as much) of an attention *****. Photo swap is genuinely hilarious sometimes. Kids LOVE the lenses, so you can just have them sit there and play with it and then send off their creation to people in their families. Facebook is desperately trying to make this a thing in messenger but they're way behind still. You get more comfortable oversharing if you think you look good + no one use the photo/video against you later.

8. Bitmojis. "next level emoticons", emoticon with your caricature on them. The second a meme becomes popular, you can almost guarantee that there will be a bitmoji for it. The more recent ones I can think of are the "cash me outside how bout dah" girl, the salt guy, tapping head guy, etc. So your cartoon face on that meme and you can drop it in convos. They also have like a million variations for kissing, hugging, saying goodnight etc. If the person you're talking to has bitmoji set up too, the two caricatures can interact. No other company has copied this yet but you can get a Bitmoji extension for Facebook. I always forget this exists but my younger cousins are professionals at finding situations to drop them, it's impressive. "A picture says 1000 words" and all that.

9. Filters. Today there are filters for Woman's Day, there are filters for the time of the day, temperature, geofilters showing what city/town you're in - you can't fake them. You can't overlay it in a separate app and then upload it, Snapchat exposes you and puts it in a white frame that says "from camera roll". There's even a battery life filter which shows how much juice your phone has left so if you want to covertly exit a convo by saying your phone is dying, it can expose you if the other person doesn't believe you...

10. The content you create is saved on Snapchat's cloud storage instead of on your phone's storage ("Memories"). Less tech savvy people can't sort out their storage on their device so this is some people's favourite part about Snapchat. They took the thinking away. I haven't even heard of a limit to how much you can upload."

[v3locim]

I agree with you. The FineFilterz are amazing and I recommend them