In 2011 the Snapchat app was released to the public and had an amazing reaction – people loved it! Disappearing pictures were a new phenomenon that provided new ways for people to interact ‘face to face.’ The age of texting was slowly coming to an end and Snapchat was officially starting to take the lead.
Over the past four years Snapchat has morphed into an unbelievable social app, and perhaps something more. People solely communicate through Snapchat and view it as a means of communication. Someone’s not answering a call? Snapchat! Someone’s not responding to a text? Snapchat! No facebook account? Snapchat! Instagram, being one of the pioneers of photo apps saw Snapchat’s potential from a young age. Mark Zuckerberg immediately offered CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, $3 billion dollars cash to buy Snapchat. Spiegel, reluctant to find a way for Snapchat to bring in a heavy cash flow, declined Zuckerberg’s offer.
Yesterday Instagram announced its launch of adding stories to its app something Snapchat had recently done in addition to other unique features (including branded geotags, interactive geotags, and local news stories) which is how Snapchat found ways to make money. Zuckerberg, still resentful of Spiegel’s decline, copied one of Snapchat’s unique features and added the ability to post 24 hour stories to users feeds on Instagram. Yesterday, users of Instagram were confused and surprised with the abrupt addition to the app, I however believe the addition will be the start of some awesome competition.
Snapchat has been known to be more of an interactive app then a posting app. They’ve found ways to let snaps ‘stick’ with their 24 hour story feature while Instagram has previously taken a more traditional route. As Instagram incorporates feature-like stories and direct messaging, Snapchat becomes more useless. I believe without further unique features Instagram can slowly crush Snapchat and be the leader with social and communications app via photographs. Who knew how exciting a battle between two photo apps could be?
