Snapchat is an app that lets you avoid keeping messages, images and other data sent from your mobile. Here is a look at this app, popular among young people aged 13 to 23.
The concept
Created by Stanford students, Snapchat now has more than 40 million users. This app, which presents itself as the “anti-Facebook,” owes its popularity to its ephemeral messaging system. With Snapchat, it is indeed possible to schedule the self-destruction of messages, photos and videos sent to another user after a few seconds. Thus, if you send an intimate photo to a contact, upon receiving the photo, that person has between 0 and 10 seconds to view it. Once this time has passed, the message self-destructs and is therefore not saved on Snapchat’s servers. If a person has not viewed the message, it is only destroyed after 30 days.
Sexting on Snapchat
Snapchat thus appears to be the ideal program for sending confidential, sexy, or even pornographic photos and videos to contacts who are Snapchat members without fear (the images will automatically stop circulating once viewed by the recipient). Because of its ephemeral nature, the app appeals to sexting enthusiasts who want to exchange erotic photos while keeping their anonymity, as on chatroulette. As proof, every day, 150 million photos are exchanged via Snapchat.
Security flaws
Even though Snapchat theoretically does not keep the photos and messages sent on its servers, the system is not infallible. Indeed, it is entirely possible to take a screenshot of an image by simply holding your finger on the screen or by using BlueStacks, an Android emulator. Snapchat does, moreover, warn the sender of a photo in advance of this possibility, without however preventing them from sending it. Besides, apps such as Undelete for Root Users allow photos to be recovered. Some of the recovered photos are then published on the “Snapchat Leaked” site.
Caution is therefore advised when using this app, which is exploited by many malicious users: “Don’t send your intimate photos to just anyone, it’s dangerous!”
Facebook Poke for iPhone, Wickr for iOS, and Gryphn for Android are thus presented as the best alternatives to Snapchat, these being more secure.
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