Snapchat is working on a new chat interface which will bring it closer to many of the others popular apps in the market such as Whatsapp or Line. Read all about it, here!
A few Snapchat images have surfaced around the web in the last couple days, especially in sites aimed towards developers, and they seem to hint at something interesting: many new features are coming, including voice calls, video calls, and even stickers, which are very similar to the ones seen in Facebook or Line’s chat services.
The new interface has a new objective: to make this chat service more widely used. Regular users might know that most of the chat is done via sending pictures with emojis, filters, or videos and animations. On the chat itself, its mostly used to say “lol” or an equivalent, or just comment on what someone else sent. Still, the company of the ghostly mascot wants you to use the chat even more, for users to type out longer convos, and compete with chat services like Facebook or Whatsapp. In order to do this, Snapchat are working in bringing new, more fun interactive features. Currently, all users can do is upload pictures, and if both users happen to be online at the same time, do a video call.
Snapchat are one of the most popular chat apps for teens who access it every hour on average so they can keep up with their history or their friends, or check on celebrities, media and so on. What makes Snapchat special, though, is that none of this stuff is stored anywhere, and all info gets deleted once the user has seen it.
From what we saw in the screenshots that came up at developer forum XDA, the new images show new screens to pick up voice and video calls, and there’s even a new bar with buttons to make these calls along with indicators to show whether a contact is reading, listening, speaking or interacting in any way with a message.
There are also a few stickers, which are all the rage in apps like Line or WeChat. Evan Spiegel, the SnapChat CEO, said he admired these messengers for having found a monetization model that hinged on games, interactivity and microtransactions, which even Facebook had to imitate eventually in their chat services.
We can not tell as of now whether these features will roll out slowly or for all users at once, but the fact that SnapChat will be adding new features seems to be a reality. Get ready, Snapchat wants you to use their app exclusively and are willing to work for your time which in the end should be great for the users.
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