One app released more than three years ago is currently one of the most-used social media apps today, Snapchat. Snapchat is fun, friendly, and easy to use, and for the past three years, this app has had the same purpose, until Nov. 17.
On that date, a person with Snapchat on their phone may clearly remember receiving a video message from Team Snapchat introducing Snapcash.
Before Snapcash was introduced, Snapchat was an app where users made a password-protected account. Once the account was made, users added friends by their usernames or the user invited to snap people with a mobile phone number. Once the user had all their contacts on Snapchat, that person can begin to use the app.
Most people would categorize Snapchat as a messaging or social media app because Snapchat is an app where you send pictures to your friends. The app has a self-destructing capability where those friends could only look at the picture for a certain amount of seconds ranging from one second to 10 seconds.
Like photos, on Snapchat a person can also make videos that range from one to 10 seconds long. Later Snapchat also advanced to where the person receiving a Snapchat can occasionally replay the pictures or videos sent to them. After opening a recent Snapchat picture or video, the user can press down on the Snapchat for about 3 seconds. This will allow a person to replay a Snapchat that was recently sent to them.
Over the years, Team Snapchat added more improvements to Snapchat. The next great step added to Snapchat was being able to make a Snapstory.
Putting a picture on a Snapstory allows the user to put the picture or video made visible for all of the user’s contacts. The time limit is still put in these pictures and videos but the picture or video stays on your Snapstory for 24 hours. You can delete and add to your Snapstory, and you can see who from your contacts has viewed your Snapstory.
Later in the evolution of Snapchat came instant messaging. Just like texting, a person can message anyone in their contacts.
One advantage to Snapchat that only some messaging systems have is that the user can see when their sent Snapchat is opened by the person they sent it too. It also allows a person to see how long ago they sent the Snapchat or how long ago the receiver opened the Snapchat. This works with sending messages, pictures, and videos.
The newest addition to Snachat would be Snapcash. But what is Snapcash?
Snapcash is an addition where users can add in their debit or credit card information and directly send money to their contacts. This new feature is only available to people who are 18 and older.
According to Team Snapchat, using Snapcash is extremely easy. All a person has to do is add credit or debit card information and when the user wants to send money to a friend, he or she just types in the dollar symbol and the amount of money, and then sends away!
As said in the introduction song to Snapcash on YouTube, “ It’s fast and breezy!”
But that’s only what some people think.
When randomly asking 20 LHS students during 4th period lunch their thoughts of Snapcash after its announcement, only three of them said they would use it when they turn 18.
“I feel like it would be easy to hack,” expressed sophomore Kathryn Dane.
She is not the only student worried about this new addition.
“I feel like one of my friends would mess with me and just send money to other people,” explained sophomore Sydney Spraklyn.
However, some students see Snapcash as a wonderful new addition to the app, and they said that they would use the app when they turn 18.
“Before you could use Snapchat for [inappropriate] pictures and it was free, but now people can charge for those same pictures,” said sophomore Tamara Alak saw this positive side of the app.
It looks like many students from LHS will continue to use Snapchat as a source of social media instead of an instant bank account.
In the future, when students turn 18, the opinions on Snapcash may change. However, for now, most students are not old enough to use Snapcash, so the addition will not truly affect high schoolers immediately.
