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Introducing the new Snapchat

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Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#131

Post by qpalz »

yojex wrote: post #11
distantsounds wrote: post #6

Android's Camera API has existed for _literally years_ to take high-quality photos and these guys are still just taking a screenshot of the viewfinder and calling it a day. It's been like this forever and Snap has refused to fix this. I have yet to come across any other app on Android that utilizes the camera this way. The photos are complete garbage. And here they are, trying to add more 'features' into an app where…

Snapchat takes beautiful photos on iOS. Some people I know even prefer to use it to the native camera. I wonder why this is different for Android? Does anyone have an insight here?

It has a built in low-light photo mode on iOS that I use over the stock camera app all the time. In full light you can't even tell the difference between stock and snapchat photos.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#132

Post by qpalz »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #74
eightysixfour wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sure doesn’t for me, it takes the worst photos of any app I use by a long shot. It is fine for ephemeral stuff but nothing I want to save ever turns out well. (This includes from my 6S and my 8+)

When you save, you're saving exactly what would be uploaded to Snapchat, which is downsized for bandwidth reasons. You'll especially notice this on videos.

I'm looking at some of my saved snapchat videos on iOS and I am almost certain from the quality that there's no downsizing done here. Maybe if you send it to your story and then download it from there it'll be downsized to what exists on their server.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#133

Post by dullgiulio »

canistr wrote: post #96
piquadrat wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking the easy route was OK when they were a scrappy startup, but now that they are a multi-billion public company, I honestly don't see why they can't hire a couple of qualified Android devs to fix this.

It's never really about the devs. It's about creating buy-in from management to support the work that needs to be done. You'll be hard-pressed to find leadership that is generally willing to re-architect/re-engineer apps from scratch without significant pressure from somewhere else in the org other than engineering. Technical debt is always the last concern in the product. But for once, it's manifesting itself as a r…

Ugh and I thought that "The Camera App Company" that only hires rockstar engineers would be different...

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#134

Post by thebaer »

iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

> How do I have an identity when I consistently invite other people - often strangers - to affirm my experiences?

This sums it up so perfectly. It precisely explains what I've always failed to when people ask, "why didn't you take pictures of that? or share them on Facebook?" I was just overseas for several weeks and I was able to fully absorb the entire experience because I wasn't worried about what anyone else in the world thought of what I was experiencing at the moment.

I do think there can be a middle-ground with social media if it's designed thoughtfully, with this perspective in mind. I wrote a little about it recently [0], specifically on how Mastodon shouldn't have ported over the favorite/like functionality from Twitter, because functions like that do hijack our brains to use these tools for the subconscious reward, rather than to truly improve our lives in some way.

With prevalent awareness of the issue, thoughtful design, and a change in financial incentives for platform makers I think we can come away from this crazy time of intrusive, subconscious-altering social media with just the good parts.

[0] https://write.as/matt/mastodon-social-favorites

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#135

Post by tim333 »

iambateman wrote: post #48

Evan of Snapchat talks about “performing for your friends” as a strange “side effect” of Snapchat. But the instinct to perform is native to the Snapchat medium. I think this is a problem. I went to a concert a few weeks ago. The people beside me would stand still for 10 minutes and then someone would pull out Snapchat. The whole group would turn around, flash a smile and start dancing for the camera. 9 seconds later,…

People have smiled for the camera since we've had cameras. It's not really a new social media phenomena.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#136

Post by spike021 »

anant90 wrote: post #35

Teenagers, and for that matter, everyone yearns for smaller private spaces where they can share whatever they want with their closest friends — without any reservations of judgement from their parents, grandmas or uncles. I used to love Instagram, until Facebook decided to make it Facebook v2 by making my entire "friend" list follow me there as well. That means that until I invest a lot of time hiding my story from e…

Not sure I understand what you mean.

You can set your Instagram to private and even if friends from Facebook see that you have an account there they can't just view your content. They'd need to send a follow request to do that.

IG can easily still be a private space. I don't accept everyone who's on my friends list from Facebook.

e: Also, while it's potentially more work there's nothing stopping you from having multiple accounts on Instagram. The UI is actually pretty simple when it comes to swapping between more than one as needed.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#137

Post by 8x8squares »

There is an interesting article by Dan Kaplan on "Why Snapchat is Losing To Facebook And The Strategy It Can Use To Win" [1]. It is an amazing read for anyone interested.

In the post, the author outlines a strategy which Snap can use to regain its relevance and importance in the social space. The author mentions how Snap can rebrand itself as a "self-expression company" that respects users' humanity.

Interesting to see Snap taking steps in this direction.

[1]: https://exponents.co/snap-facebook-key-competitive-strategy/

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#138

Post by kaycebasques »

spike021 wrote: post #136
anant90 wrote: post #35

Teenagers, and for that matter, everyone yearns for smaller private spaces where they can share whatever they want with their closest friends — without any reservations of judgement from their parents, grandmas or uncles. I used to love Instagram, until Facebook decided to make it Facebook v2 by making my entire "friend" list follow me there as well. That means that until I invest a lot of time hiding my story from e…

Not sure I understand what you mean. You can set your Instagram to private and even if friends from Facebook see that you have an account there they can't just view your content. They'd need to send a follow request to do that. IG can easily still be a private space. I don't accept everyone who's on my friends list from Facebook. e: Also, while it's potentially more work there's nothing stopping you from having multi…

Snap lets you send stories (or whatever they're called) to specific groups of people, yes?

That's a huge differentiator, in my book. It provides a simple interface for sharing experiences with specific people. Not really any different than a group SMS or other form of group chat, really. But a very different experience from Instagram, for sure.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#139

Post by spike021 »

kaycebasques wrote: post #138
spike021 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I understand what you mean. You can set your Instagram to private and even if friends from Facebook see that you have an account there they can't just view your content. They'd need to send a follow request to do that. IG can easily still be a private space. I don't accept everyone who's on my friends list from Facebook. e: Also, while it's potentially more work there's nothing stopping you from having multi…

Snap lets you send stories (or whatever they're called) to specific groups of people, yes? That's a huge differentiator, in my book. It provides a simple interface for sharing experiences with specific people. Not really any different than a group SMS or other form of group chat, really. But a very different experience from Instagram, for sure.

You can do that in Instagram as well. You can create chat groups and specifically send them one of the exploding "snaps" for lack of a better word.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#140

Post by odonnellryan »

maxfurman wrote: post #94
distantsounds wrote: post #6

Android's Camera API has existed for _literally years_ to take high-quality photos and these guys are still just taking a screenshot of the viewfinder and calling it a day. It's been like this forever and Snap has refused to fix this. I have yet to come across any other app on Android that utilizes the camera this way. The photos are complete garbage. And here they are, trying to add more 'features' into an app where…

I'm fine with the picture quality (they are ephemeral after all) but I'm not fine with how the Android app is slow, clunky, battery-destroying mess. Example: If I get a plaintext chat message through snapchat, and I tap the notification to open it, do I go straight to the chat thread? No, I'm dropped at the camera, which has to start streaming and download all the new filters and god knows what else until it allows m…

Yeah. Android app has sucked for a while now. Can't quickly snap something interesting. What's the point?
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