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Photo-messaging app leapt back into relevancy yesterday when it launched two new updates to its platform. In addition to photos that delete themselves, Snapchat users will now be able to use an instant messaging and video chat feature.
The app announced the updates in a blog post, along with this video to explain how it works:
This makes Snapchat only the latest app to try and jump on the bandwagon for instant messaging. Instagram added it a few months ago, Twitter is trying to modify its direct messaging to look like chat, and Facebook went ahead and bought Whatsapp for a bajillion dollars (while still building out, and forcing people to use its own messaging app.)
The only difference is the teens really, really love Snapchat.
Business Insider reports that high school kids are going nuts over the update and downloading it in hordes. This, in turn, is driving their teachers mad. One Kansas high-school teache Tracie Schroeder provided a written account to Business Insider, noting that in her 16 years of teaching, nothing had ever disrupted her classroom more than the new release from Snapchat. Here is the best part:
Today was the first day in a long time I actually took phones away. I have no idea what all was included in the update, but you would have thought it was crack. They seriously could not keep away from it. I even had one girl crawl under the table with her phone.
At that point I took all the phones away and we had a little reminder chat about when it was appropriate to use your phone and when it was not. Also that it was rarely appropriate to hide under the table.
For quite awhile now, kids have had a real anxiety about being separated from their phone, but today it was near panic. I am hoping by tomorrow some of the novelty will have worn off and we can get back to business.
Cue the salivating tongues of marketers immediately devising a media plan to harness the crack-like power of Snapchat
