One of the biggest apps of the past year, is the almighty Snapchat. The mobile app that allows you to send (mostly cheeky) photos to friends, only to have it self destruct after 10 seconds.
The appeal of Snapchat‘s “˜10-second photo‘, has ensured that the app has over 30 million active users world wide. Of course, Snapchat was specifically designed for mobile use, just as other messaging apps like WhatsApp or WeChat.
However, two (very) young students from the University of California, San Diego, have developed a Snapchat app for your Mac – introducing Snapped.
Snapped allows you to send and receive Snapchats on your Mac. Basically, its a desktop version of the popular, mobile Snapchat.
Although Snapped is not an official Snapchat app, it does offer you the basics of Snapchat on a different platform.
The idea comes from ThnkDev – a development shop which is run by Josh Cohen and Noah Martin. Both of whom are still teenagers; Cohen is a first year and Martin a second.
Snapped is currently still in its beta phase, and runs on OS X Mavericks. The duo of brainy teenagers hopes that the app will eventually be available in Apple‘s App Store.
It‘s very easy to use Snapped – mostly because it follows the same model already planned out by Snapchat itself. You simply log into your Snapchat account on your Mac and you‘re ready to snap away.
Once logged in, you can select a time for each snap and choose who you want to send your photo to. You will have access to your usual friends list, sent messages and your inbox in the desktop version.
Snapped automatically uses your Mac‘s front facing camera to take a picture. You can image that this makes the act of taking of a selfie mush less awkward than holding your phone in front of your face. Now you can simply sit at your desk, smile at your computer screen, and quickly snap a selfie.
You are also able to upload pictures from your computer into the app – which means your not limited to only sending pictures of yourself.
Because the app is still in its beta phase, its not completely smooth. There are some minor bugs and things lacking from the original, mobile version of Snapchat. For instance, the app is not yet able to take a video or add text or filters.
Even though Snapped is not officially Snapchat endorsed, it uses Snapchats private API to run. Snapchat has not made its developer API accessible to outsiders, but this has not stopped other parties from reverse engineering the API and making it work for them.
This, of course, makes one question the security of Snapped. While Snapped uses Snapchat‘s own API to log in and access messages, the appnever stores your Snapchat password. Thus, the app does not have a “˜remember me‘ option.
While some might think Snapped is defining the purpose of Snapchat – mobile use – other think the app has some potential. It could be nice using the app on desktop and mobile; you‘ll certainly look less suspicious at work snapping on your Mac rather than your phone!
What are your thoughts? A great idea or waste of time?
Source: Mashable
