This week some Snapchat source code - not ALL the code, but some - leaked and appeared on Github. That means more than a couple people had access to said source code - or fragment of source code - for a little while. Certainly long enough to download and keep for one's very own. Mercifully it does not appear that the source code leaked was too particularly important for the privacy of end users.
Snap accidentally revealed some of its Snapchat for iOS source code, the company has confirmed. The exposure resulted from an app update issued this past May; though Snap moved quickly to fix it, someone had already grabbed a copy and shared it on GitHub. Snap says it discovered its code on the website, forcing it to issue a copyright act removal request.
A set of new Snapchat lenses were released today - if all went as planned - with voice controls embedded within them. As Snapchat already had permission to use your smartphone's microphones when prompted, it was simply a matter of using voice recognition software to set off different effects in the Lens universe. Snapchat revealed that these lenses will hopefully be released by the end of the day today.
This week the folks at Snapchat responsible for advertisement monetization are pushing "Storytellers" for social media influencers. It's a program which unites advertisers with the social media titans who would sell their products for them for a fee, in a creative way. In other words - sarcastic hooray! It's time for more advertisements that come to Snapchat users in the form of videos they won't realize are advertisements until it's too late!
Snapcash may have been ahead of its time. Launched in 2014, it got a head start on peer-to-peer payments via social networks. now that the feature is more common, Snapchat will soon be shutting it down. Because while it called dibs on that feature, it hasn’t exactly taken off the way other payment options have. More importantly, it has even become more of an embarrassment to the social network, having become a method to pay for less than innocent content posted on Snapchat.
A fix is in the mix for Snapchat, an app whose servers had issues over the past 24 hours. Those users with Snapchat on either Android or iOS (assuming you're not using the app with some 3rd-party off-the-wall system), can try the following to save their Snap Streaks. The first step requires that you hold your breath, because you're about to turn off the internet!
In the war against other messaging apps (specifically Instagram), Snapchat has recently seen weak user growth numbers. With Instagram rolling out its own versions of popular Snapchat features regularly, Snap is certainly under pressure to make its flagship app stand out. One way it might look to do that could be by launching a new gaming initiative later this year.
Snapchat's Spectacles can now export video in a much more usable format, ditching the circular shape and making footage captured with the camera-toting sunglasses play nicer with other social networks. Until now, exporting a video captured by Spectacles with Snapchat's app would do so in a circular format, with a white border around the footage.
The fact that Snapchat messages are only temporary might make some of us a little more bold with our words than we normally would be. Many Snapchat users know that it's still entirely possible to send a message you regret even with the knowledge that it isn't permanent, and now, Snap is rolling out new tools to help you erase those moments. With the latest Snapchat update, functionality that allows you to delete unread messages is beginning to roll out.
Snapchat seems to need no help from third-party actors to stir up controversy. But, as they say, bad publicity is still publicity. Even before the widely unpopular redesign or the more recent unskippable ads, Snapchat had its always-on location broadcasting Snap Map feature. That potentially privacy-invasive feature eventually sagged after a brief surge of popularity but now Snapchat has found a compromise: a feature that lets you send or request a location when and where you need it and not forever.
Snap's Spectacles are set to become a lot more useful for video sharing, even if you're not much of a Snapchat user. While exporting video captured with Spectacles has been possible since the first generation sunglasses, until now it has always had some drawbacks.
A new feature on Snapchat makes 6-second advertisements unskippable. They're real, they're here, and they're not going away any time soon. As such, it's time to discuss once again how to delete an app - namely Snapchat. It's actually pretty easy when it comes down to it. If you just want to get rid of notifications, we've got a guide for that too.