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Introducing the new Snapchat

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Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#91

Post by badnew »

distantsounds wrote: post #53
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.

"snapchat isn't a photography app" you literally take photos and send it to people

Snapchat is to photography as passing notes in class is to literature

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#92

Post by distantsounds »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #68
distantsounds wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are overstating the delay involved in taking a photo and having it process inside Android. Whether or not you're taking a screenshot of the viewfinder or properly processing the photo, the moment you press the shutter button is the exact moment that Android captures what the camera sees. The processing that goes inside may take a second or so (if you're using the camera API) but it's fairly negligible in…

I think it can take a hundred milliseconds or more to actually capture. It has to switch the camera from preview mode to capture, which involves a change in resolution, encoding and perhaps recalibrating white balance and automatic gain. So press the button and hold for a beat, or when you release the button you make shake/blur the image at the moment of capture.

None of these performance hits sound like they negatively affect the purpose of the app though, at least not detrimentally to the point where poeple would complain about it.

I am but one person, but there are far more complaints about the quality of the photos, than the milliseconds of lag you see hitting the capture button.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#93

Post by bhauer »

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…

The apparent delight in low-quality photography that pervades both Snapchat and Instagram are among the reasons I don't bother using either. Earlier photography applications and platforms such as Flickr celebrated high-quality camera equipment and the resulting photographs. Intentional dramatic down-sampling and filters that add vintage discoloration have never resonated with my senses.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#94

Post by maxfurman »

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 me to swipe left to get to chats, then tap the specific thread to see the new message.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#95

Post by clw8 »

mbzi wrote: post #70
tartuffe78 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We we're doing video, so we are using Camera1 (and Camera2) where its available, but its a bad situation. Lots of obscure devices we don't have access to test on fail regularly and users blame us not Android. The API is clumsy and broken, not just difficult to use. If I was making an app with photo taking capabilities, I would explore the Snapchat route. Obviously Snapchats users are ok with this for the most part.

This^ I have made countless cross-platform AR apps for mobile and desktop. Never an issue with WebRTC/getUserMedia, iOS, windows, etc. However Android is always a nasty problem. From incorrect aspect resolutions, image stretching, silent fails. Each device needs a custom fix which is time consuming and costly. No wonder why Snapchat went an alternative route.

Are time-consuming custom fixes still commonly required in other (not camera reliant) Android apps too? I haven't really done any Android development since I had a Galaxy phone four years ago because this problem really turned me off to making hobby apps for Android.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#96

Post by canistr »

piquadrat wrote: post #85
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…

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 real user-facing problem which was acknowledged in the last SNAP earnings call for the Android app.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#97

Post by nolok »

tfuiih55 wrote: post #86
squeaky-clean wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm not sure how you can think your sarcasm adds anything to the conversation, nor how it could be warranted.

In case you haven't noticed, Snapchat main hurdles these days is that their growth is vastly slowed down by the "stories" timeline on the Facebook app (Instagram, WhatsApp, messenger) that do offer higher quality of pictures.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#98

Post by mrgreenfur »

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.

They are successful despite bad design, not because of it.

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#99

Post by tfuiih55 »

nolok wrote: post #97
tfuiih55 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm not sure how you can think your sarcasm adds anything to the conversation, nor how it could be warranted. In case you haven't noticed, Snapchat main hurdles these days is that their growth is vastly slowed down by the "stories" timeline on the Facebook app (Instagram, WhatsApp, messenger) that do offer higher quality of pictures.

I don’t really see how histrionics over a tech company in a so-called free market with an obligation to make money, not “not screw over users” adds anything to any conversation

We’ve been here before. Especially on this HN. The whole setup itself is banal

Are we supposed to sit here and fix their problems? What point does that serve

It’s like forcing an author to change their story.

Get over it, America! No one cares about gameifying Silicon Valley

Re: Introducing the new Snapchat

#100

Post by recursive »

distantsounds wrote: post #62
mynameisvlad wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main feature is not "taking photos", it's "capturing memories for quick sharing". The additional time it takes to focus/take the photo (which, judging by certain built in camera apps, could be seconds) makes or breaks the in the moment feel. In the end, these photos are meant to be looked at for max 10s with stickers/drawings/text superimposed. You don't need a high quality shot for that.

I think you are overstating the delay involved in taking a photo and having it process inside Android. Whether or not you're taking a screenshot of the viewfinder or properly processing the photo, the moment you press the shutter button is the exact moment that Android captures what the camera sees. The processing that goes inside may take a second or so (if you're using the camera API) but it's fairly negligible in…

Using the stock camera app on my unmodified LG G6, this is just not true. There's about a second of lag between pressing the button, and actually capturing photons. Trying to capture my son in a specific pose is basically impossible. Maybe I'll download an app that screenshots a live video, rather than using the camera API, or whatever it's doing.
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