What Is Snapchat

You've probably heard about Snapchat. It's the popular mobile app that allows you to send videos and pictures, both of which will self destruct after a few seconds of a person viewing them.

Snapchat is also a fun messaging app. You can capture a photo or brief video with it, then add a caption or doodle or filter/lens over top, and send the finished creation (called a snap) to a friend. Alternatively, you can add your snap to your "story", a 24-hour collection of all your snaps that’s broadcasted to the world or just your followers.

But these are merely part of the many features within Snapchat. Yes, at its core, Snapchat is used to send photos and videos to friends. Your friends can view snaps for up to 10 seconds, and then the snaps disappear. While that's all fine and dandy, many people are still left stumped by Snapchat.

They can't seem to understand why someone would actually want to send pictures or videos to friends, especially if they can't be saved. Well, they can be "saved", because Snapchat has more to offer than what meets the eye.

What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is a photo- and video-messaging app. It launched in 2011.

Snapchat is unique in that all photos and videos only last a brief amount of time before they disappear forever, making the app ephemeral in nature, though you can take a screenshot of all the snaps you receive to save them in picture form. You can also save your own snaps before sending them to friends or you story.

As of May 2014, the app's users were sending 700 million snaps a day. Due to the instant popularity of Snapchat, Facebook reportedly offered to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion. One of the app's cofounders declined the cash offer, however. Facebook later launched a similar app, called Slingshot, but it failed to catch on.

Who uses Snapchat?

Everyone uses Snapchat. But it is directed toward teens and adults.

Snapchat is mostly a hit among teenagers, according to several research firms, though it is catching on and embracing new demographics every day. Viners (creators who used Vine), YouTubers, and celebrities, for instance, are known to use Snapchat as an alternative means of communicating with their followers.

What's the point of Snapchat?

We could give a long explanation to describe how social media and apps are evolving in order to match the current trends and interests of active users around the world, but we'll just share the above video instead. It not only gives a humorous and quick overview of Snapchat, but it also provides an interesting take or look at why Snapchat is so popular at this moment in time, especially among teenagers.

(It's made by Casey Neistat, a popular YouTube creator.)

What's all the lingo mean?

Here are some of the common terms and phrases used in the Snapchat world:

Snapchatters: Snapchat users.

Snaps: Photos or videos taken with Snapchat. You can send a snap to another snapchatter, but it can only be viewed by the recipient for one to 10 seconds before it disappears forever. To take a snap, open Snapchat, then hit the capture button on the Camera screen.

Snapback: A reply to a snap.

Story: A snap you can broadcast to followers. Recipients can view your story an unlimited amount of times in 24 hours, and you can post multiple snaps to your story in one day to create a narrative loop of sorts. You can access your story and your friends’ stories from the Stories screen (swipe from right to left on the Camera screen).

Scores: A special equation combining the number of snaps you've sent and received, stories you've posted, and other factors. You can find a friend’s score when you hold down on a friend’s name in your contact list, story feed, or chat area. You can find yours under your Snapcode located in the center of your Profile screen.

Snapcode: Snapcodes are scannable codes that make adding new Snapchat friends even easier. Your Snapcode is located in the center of your Profile Screen, which you can access by tapping the ghost icon in the upper center of the Camera Screen.

Chat: A feature that lets you directly message other Snapchatters. You can access the Chat screen by swiping from left to right on the Camera screen. Tap the create new message button in the upper corner to select a friend to chat with. Alternatively, when you create a snap, select a friend to send it to, and you’ll see a new private chat box appear between you and your friend in the Chat screen.

Video chat: This is a feature within Chat that lets you start a live video call. To start a video chat, simply tap the video record button in a chat. If your friend is available they can choose to ‘Watch’ or ‘Join’. If your friend chooses to ‘Watch’ you will be unable to see them but they can hear you, see you, and send you chats. If your friend chooses to ‘Join’ you will be able to see and hear each other.

Snapstreak: You may have noticed that some of your fellow snapchatters have different emojis next to their Snapchat names in the Chat screen. That means you're on a Snapstreak, aka you and your friend have snapped each other (not chat) within 24 hours for more than one consecutive day.

Lenses: You can make Snaps even more fun by adding real-time special effects and sounds with lenses. Go to the Camera screen in Snapchat, tap on your face, and lens options will appear below. Swipe left to select the lens you want to use, then tap the capture button to take a snap.

Filters: You can zazz up your snap by adding a fun overlay with a filter. After you take a Snap, swipe right or left on the preview screen to add colored filters, the current time, local weather, speed overlays or geofilters to your snaps. After taking your snap and applying your first Filter, you can press and hold then swipe to add another filter too.

How does Snapchat work?

We'll be the first to admit that Snapchat is so simple it's almost confusing.

The app's main screen is your Camera screen, and that can be initially a little jarring or weird to navigate around. Try to remain calm however and keep reading to learn exactly how Snapchat works. By the time you're done our mini tutorial, you'll be snapping like a 14 year old.