Blog Post week 12

Why Snapchat Has Stayed Around

"Snapchat" one of the most popular messaging apps and has been around since 2011. Ever since its release, it has continued to gain popularity and is known around the world. Snapchat is a way for users to send instant messages to another in the form of "snaps" which are short lasting photos or videos. 

Snapchat was founded in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy- three students at Stanford University at the time. In July of 2011, the app "Picaboo" was released as a precursor to Snapchat which would eventually come in September later that year.

At its early "exploratory" stage, Snapchat started as a communication app which allowed the user to send and receive photos and videos which only lasted ten seconds each. The app continued to gain popularity and attract new users with it's earlier additions of story's and streaks. Snapchat streaks are an important feature which has helped the app still be popular today. "Snapstreaks" are a tool in the app which counts how many consecutive days you and a friend have exchanged snapchats. This feature keeps friends coming back and snap chatting each other in order to keep the streak going.

The app has continued to keep users around and attract both late adopters and laggards with features such as face filters, its discover page, geo-filters and much, much more. Its ability to adopt to the new demands of its users and generate new ideas which keep people coming back exemplifies why this app is still popular today. 

sources: https://phys.org/news/2018-06-snapchat.html; https://www.snapchat.com/; https://www.thestreet.com/technology/history-of-snapchat