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Introducing the new Snapchat

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Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#81

Post by Gaelan »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #60
unfunco wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't the photos on Snapchat intended to be ephemeral? I'd be totally okay with potato quality if I was sharing something quickly because Snapchat isn't a photography app. It's not as if Snapchat are a tiny company with nobody smart enough to notice there's a camera API, this is intentional. If you want to send a quality photo to a friend, there are apps for that.

> Aren't the photos on Snapchat intended to be ephemeral? I'd be totally okay with potato quality if I was sharing something quickly because Snapchat isn't a photography app. This hasn't been the primary focus for years. You can now send Snaps that don't expire after a time limit, and can save your snaps to your storage or Snap's cloud storage (called "memories").

The non-expiring snaps still disappear when you close them; they just don’t auto-close. I guess there’s memories, but I doubt most people take photos just to put in memories.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#83

Post by staplers »

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,…

  They are quietly subverting their self while sublimating the value of the crowd. How do I have an identity when I consistently invite other people - often strangers - to affirm my experiences?
This realization led me to delete most of my social media accounts. Rejecting constant validation and ever-present social commentary opened my life to the quiet details. It led to a mental growth spurt which elevated my career and relationship with family and friends.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#84

Post by relix »

chrisdbaldwin wrote: post #58
m3rc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Every friend of mine complains about the UI. Just yesterday a group of friends (early 20's) were commiserating over how nothing in Snapchat made any sense and just doing something as simple as getting to your friends list was difficult and unintuitive, requiring a couple false starts where you use the wrong swipe and end up somewhere you didn't mean to.

What if I told you that was part of the genius design? This "frustrating design" forces curiosity out of users to discover the app for themselves and encourages them to share these features with friends further augmenting the network effect. Based on which semi-hidden features get shared/used the most, Snap can A/B test faster than you'd imagine.

That's indeed the myth, but even Evan disagrees with it or at least does no longer think that's for the best. From their Q3 earnings call (quoting Evan):

> The one thing that we have heard over the years is that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, and our team has been working on responding to this feedback. As a result, we are currently redesigning our application to make it easier to use. There is a strong likelihood that the redesign of our application will be disruptive to our business in the short term, and we don't yet know how the behavior of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application. We're willing to take that risk for what we believe are substantial long-term benefits to our business.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#85

Post by piquadrat »

tartuffe78 wrote: post #30
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…

As a near daily snapchat user, and someone who has developed an Android app that use's the camera, I prefer it this way. I'm not using SnapChat to take super high quality pictures, but to share moments quickly. The WYSIWYG works well for that, and a lot of Android devices are super slow to take pictures. Dealing with Camera 1 vs Camera 2 Android APIs, and device specific issues is a mess, I don't blame them for takin…

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.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#86

Post by tfuiih55 »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #59
tartuffe78 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a near daily snapchat user, and someone who has developed an Android app that use's the camera, I prefer it this way. I'm not using SnapChat to take super high quality pictures, but to share moments quickly. The WYSIWYG works well for that, and a lot of Android devices are super slow to take pictures. Dealing with Camera 1 vs Camera 2 Android APIs, and device specific issues is a mess, I don't blame them for takin…

It screws over higher-end devices though. One of the reasons I bought an LG G3 was the "laser auto focus" whatever, which actually did make it insanely fast to take an in-focus photo. It was way slower with Snapchat, and I couldn't focus on anything closer than about 3 feet. I kind of blame Android too, as a dev I know how crappy the camera APIs can be. But as a user, it stands that only Snapchat takes crappy photos…

Screws over! Oh no!

Good thing it still has the native app

Is Snap obligated to transport your high-res images via the agreement you have when using their software?

Sounds like a market opportunity for software that doesn’t screw you over

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#87

Post by hmhrex »

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,…

This is a great way of explaining this. I've been without social media for about 1.5 months now. I've noticed the urge to capture an experience for social a few times, even though I've spoken against it in the past. I'm actually happier without it.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#88

Post by tfuiih55 »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #60
unfunco wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't the photos on Snapchat intended to be ephemeral? I'd be totally okay with potato quality if I was sharing something quickly because Snapchat isn't a photography app. It's not as if Snapchat are a tiny company with nobody smart enough to notice there's a camera API, this is intentional. If you want to send a quality photo to a friend, there are apps for that.

> Aren't the photos on Snapchat intended to be ephemeral? I'd be totally okay with potato quality if I was sharing something quickly because Snapchat isn't a photography app. This hasn't been the primary focus for years. You can now send Snaps that don't expire after a time limit, and can save your snaps to your storage or Snap's cloud storage (called "memories").

I get around this by taking pictures with my normal camera and sharing them on a site I control and only allowing certain people access

Then I don’t worry about being “screwed over” by a private company that can make its app however it wants

Welcome to HN, where the free market suddenly doesn’t exist, and you’re supposed do get what you want for free

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#89

Post by tfuiih55 »

tfuiih55 wrote: post #88
squeaky-clean wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aren't the photos on Snapchat intended to be ephemeral? I'd be totally okay with potato quality if I was sharing something quickly because Snapchat isn't a photography app. This hasn't been the primary focus for years. You can now send Snaps that don't expire after a time limit, and can save your snaps to your storage or Snap's cloud storage (called "memories").

I get around this by taking pictures with my normal camera and sharing them on a site I control and only allowing certain people access Then I don’t worry about being “screwed over” by a private company that can make its app however it wants Welcome to HN, where the free market suddenly doesn’t exist, and you’re supposed do get what you want for free

Oh no; downvotes!

Muh fake internet points!

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#90

Post by m3rc »

chrisdbaldwin wrote: post #58
m3rc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Every friend of mine complains about the UI. Just yesterday a group of friends (early 20's) were commiserating over how nothing in Snapchat made any sense and just doing something as simple as getting to your friends list was difficult and unintuitive, requiring a couple false starts where you use the wrong swipe and end up somewhere you didn't mean to.

What if I told you that was part of the genius design? This "frustrating design" forces curiosity out of users to discover the app for themselves and encourages them to share these features with friends further augmenting the network effect. Based on which semi-hidden features get shared/used the most, Snap can A/B test faster than you'd imagine.

That's kind of a cute idea, but again the overwhelming consensus between the friends I was talking to was "this app sucks". One said they use the app infrequently because of this, and I know personally I try to NEVER discover anything, because any time I do a different action I end up somewhere I didn't want to be, usually with an ad shoved in my face.

It just doesn't work the way you described. Frustration will never equal curiosity in users minds. Not saying Snapchat didn't try to get the curiosity angle, but that if they did they failed.

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