Snapchat 9.3.0

When it comes to messaging others, it has become increasingly important over the past few years to protect people’s privacy. Some apps are better at this than others, allowing users to guard themselves from others by setting up messages that expire in time.

Snapchat, for instance, is one of the apps that falls into this specific category. The app allows users to take photos, record videos and add text and drawing to these before sending them to a list of recipients. When sending one of these messages, users can set a time limit for how long the recipients can view the Snaps, varying from one to ten seconds. After the time is up, they become hidden from the friend’s device and they get deleted from the servers.

Get started

Users need to set up an account or log in with the one they already have. Then, they’ll have to verify their identity with the help of a text message or call. This will also lead to users being able to find friends based on the address book, while others will be able to find them back based on their phone number.

The messages you send to friends can be plain and simple text. The images and videos you send, however, can be attached to your story, which will allow friends to view the Snaps for an unlimited number of times for 24 hours. Fret not, however, since users will be able to decide who can view their stories in Settings.

Safe or not?

Snapchat, as a whole, is great at what it does, allowing ephemeral communications between users. Since the best protected are the photographs people send, this means there’s plenty of content that can be kept away from other people’s eyes. The fact that the app will even notify users when the recipient has snapped a screenshot of their conversation is even more helpful. While it’s nearly impossible to take a screenshot of a picture since you have to keep your finger on the touchscreen at all times, this doesn’t fully protect sensitive photos from being leaked since people can use another phone to grab a shot of the screen.

As far as user protection goes, however, Snapchat has been the target of some security breaches over the years, which means that not all data is safe. This is, however, the risk everyone takes when using virtually any online service.

Portable version:

• Snapchat for Android