Photograph by J. Emilio Flores/The New York Times via Redux
The Snapchat app, at the social media startup's headquarters in Los Angeles, on Jan. 31, 2013
Snapchat is the undisputed people’s champ of smartphone peepshows, but the app with the self-destructing images wants to be so much more.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles-based startup unveiled a major redesign that reflects its growing ambitions in the increasingly competitive world of mobile messaging. The details came out in a “snap” sent to its users: Now, in addition to those infamous photos timed to vanish after viewing, Snapchat communications will include similarly ephemeral instant messages and real-time video chat.
In an interview with The New York Times, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel explained the the changes are intended to deepen the interactions between users. “Messaging apps are focused on the number of types of content that you can send,” he said. “We are focused on what you are sending and how…This is really what we think mobile conversations should be.”
The revamped Snapchat will compete with a growing field of companies likewise hoping to emerge as the primary service organizing how friends communicate with each other on their smartphones. It’s an arena that has grown increasingly competitive in recent months. WeChat, the mobile-messaging service owned by the Chinese giant Tencent, is among the app rivals stepping up efforts to win over U.S. users.
Snapchat’s dramatic overhaul also comes on the heels of Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging startup WhatsApp. The new format will further escalate Snapchat’s growing rivalry with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, who has twice tried and failed to subsume Snapchat into his company’s portfolio.
“[U]ntil today, we felt that Snapchat was missing an important part of conversation: presence,” Snapchat noted its official blog. “There’s nothing like knowing you have the full attention of your friend while you’re chatting.” Whatever else it achieves, Snapchat’s new look is perfectly calibrated to grab the full attention of its rivals.
