Snapchat is a popular social media app that allows users to send photos, videos, and messages that disappear after being viewed. The app has a reputation as being used primarily for sharing silly selfies and other photos. However, Snapchat has evolved beyond just being a photo sharing app. While photos are still a central part of Snapchat, the app now incorporates a range of other functions for messaging, creative tools, entertainment, and more. So is Snapchat still just a photo app or has it become something broader?
Quick Answer
Snapchat started out as a photo messaging app but has since expanded into a rich multimedia messaging and social media platform. Users can still send photo and video snaps that disappear, but Snapchat now offers many other non-photo features for communication, creativity, entertainment, business, and more. So while the ability to share ephemeral photos put Snapchat on the map, the app is clearly much more than just photos today.
The Origins of Snapchat as a Photo App
Snapchat began in 2011 as a project by Stanford University students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown who wanted to create an app for sending photo messages that deleted themselves after being viewed. The prototype “Picaboo” app launched in the iOS App Store in July 2011 and focused exclusively on ephemeral photo sharing. With timed self-destructing photos, Snapchat provided a fun and low-pressure way for users to share uncensored, creative photos without worrying about consequences if images were saved or shared without their permission.
This core premise of photo messaging with disappearing photos, now called snaps, remains a key part of Snapchat today and laid the groundwork for the app’s success. Snapchat had hit 1 million daily active users by December 2012 and continued growing exponentially from there. By allowing people to communicate through photos and videos that vanished after viewing, Snapchat stood out from other social platforms. The privacy afforded by self-deleting messages enabled lighthearted interactions and goofy self-expression between friends.
In the early days, Snapchat was all about photo snaps as the only content available in the app. Users could edit photos within the app by adding captions, filters, drawings, and stickers, but it was fundamentally centered around ephemeral photo sharing. As a result, Snapchat became known first and foremost as a photo and selfie app in its initial years.
The Expansion Beyond Just Photos
While photo snaps put Snapchat on the map, the developers rapidly innovated beyond just photo messaging. Starting in late 2012, Snapchat began introducing a slew of new creative tools, communication features, and entertainment content within the app.
Here is a brief timeline showing Snapchat’s evolution beyond just photo sharing:
December 2012
– Snapchat introduced video snaps, allowing users to record and exchange ephemeral videos up to 10 seconds long.
May 2013
– Snapchat added a messaging feature for text-based conversations that don’t disappear, distinguishing it from the ephemeral chats via photos.
October 2013
– Snapchat brought on its first advertising partner and began experimenting with “Brand Stories” as the beginnings of its paid advertising business.
April 2014
– Snapchat expanded into music and entertainment by allowing users to send Snaps while listening to music from iTunes and streaming apps. Users could also search for songs to include in Snaps.
May 2014
– Snapchat rolled out “Our Story”, letting users contribute Snaps to shared public stories based on events, holidays, locations, etc.
July 2014
– Snapchat introduced Geofilters, allowing users to add location-based graphic overlays to their Snaps.
November 2014
– Snapcash payment service launched to allow Snapchat users to instantly transfer money through the chat feature.
January 2015
– Snapchat debuts Discover, its content platform for media partners like ESPN, Comedy Central, CNN and others to publish Stories.
This timeline shows how in just over two years after launch, Snapchat rapidly expanded from solely being an app for ephemeral photo messaging to integrating a wide array of other functions – messaging, advertising, music, entertainment, payments, media content, and more.
While the core use case of sharing photo and video Snaps remained at the heart of Snapchat, the app was clearly cementing itself as a rich multimedia platform and not just a photo utility. This evolution dramatically expanded Snapchat’s capabilities, use cases, and business model – setting the foundation for the diverse app we see today.
Snapchat’s Current Capabilities Beyond Photo Sharing
Flash forward to today, and Snapchat now features a wide array of capabilities and content that goes far beyond just the photo Snaps that put it on the map. Here is an overview of Snapchat’s current non-photo features and functions:
Messaging
– Chat – Snapchat’s messaging feature allows users to have ongoing text conversations with friends. These chats don’t disappear, distinguishing them from ephemeral Snaps.
– Audio and Video Calls – Users can make voice and video calls within Snapchat to communicate with friends in real-time.
Content Creation & Augmented Reality
– Lenses – Snapchat offers hundreds of augmented reality lenses that overlay effects, objects, and distortions onto your face for fun selfies and videos.
– Bitmoji – Personalized caricature avatars that users can design to represent themselves in Snaps and chats.
– Story Studio – Creative toolkit for making fully customized stories with edited videos, transitions, overlays, etc.
– Sounds – Library of licensed music, sounds, and audio clips that can be added to Snaps.
Entertainment & Content Consumption
– Discover – Platform for Snapchat’s media partners to publish Stories and premium Shows with news, comedy, documentaries, and more.
– Spotlight – User-generated short videos similar to TikTok that users can view, like, and comment on.
– Maps – Explore curated Stories and Snaps from locations around the world.
– Snap Games – Play multiplayer social games with friends through Snapchat.
E-Commerce
– Shopify Integration – Snapchat now allows Shopify merchants to create digital Shoppable Posts to promote products.
– Dynamic Ads – Advertisers can now create customized product ads that users can tap to view and purchase.
Other Features
– Snap Map – Share your location privately with friends through an interactive map.
– Snap Originals – Scripted Shows produced exclusively for Snapchat covering entertainment, news, gaming, and more.
– Minis – Bite-sized utilities from partners like Headspace, Atom Tickets, Flashcards, etc.
– Snap Camera – Special webcam software for adding Snapchat lenses to livestreams, video chats, and recordings.
– Snap Kit – Tool for integrating Snapchat’s social features like Login, Bitmoji, and Stories into other apps.
This gives a sense of the diverse range of features and capabilities accessible within Snapchat today beyond just photography. While sending photo and video Snaps is still central to the experience, users can now do everything from chat, video call, create AR content, watch shows, play games, shop, use utilities, leverage business tools, and much more without ever needing to take a Snap.
Snapchat Usage Statistics
Looking at usage statistics for Snapchat also confirms that a sizable portion of activity on the platform happens outside of creating photo Snaps:
Daily Users
– 332 million daily active users on average in Q3 2022
Daily Snaps Created
– Over 5 billion Snaps created every day on average
Communication
– Over 100 million users engage with Chat every day
– Over 30 billion Chat messages are sent per day
– Snapchat video & voice calls more than doubled in 2022
Content Consumption
– Over 250 million Snapchatters watch Discover content every day
– Snapchatters watch over 800 million minutes of Discover videos per day
– Over 1 billion Snaps are posted to Our Story daily
– Over 3.5 billion Snaps are posted to public Stories every day
AR Engagement
– More than 200 million daily Snapchatters play with Lenses for nearly 30 minutes on average
– Over 6 billion Lenses are used every day
Clearly a significant portion of Snapchat’s daily use comes from non-photo activities like Chat, Discover, Lenses and more. While Snapchat doesn’t break down exact percentages, these figures show that photos make up just a fraction of the overall engagement on Snapchat today even if they get the most public attention.
Conclusion
In summary, while Snapchat began in 2011 as an app solely focused on ephemeral photo sharing, it has since grown into a diverse camera and multimedia messaging platform. Core use cases still center around using the camera for photo and video communication. However, Snapchat now incorporates a wide range of other features and content for communication, self-expression, entertainment, commerce, and more that go far beyond just photography.
For an app that started out as just a way to send photos that disappear, Snapchat has certainly evolved to become much more than that. The platform now leverages the smartphone camera as a launchpad for a rich messaging and social experience through photos, videos, voice calls, AR, content consumption, and real-time communication.
So is Snapchat still just a photo app? The answer is clearly no. While photo sharing remains integral to Snapchat, the app has become a dynamic platform for visual communication and expression that extends far beyond photos into almost every aspect of mobile social interaction.