Snapchat Adds Video Feature

Snapchat, the wildly-popular app that allows users to share photos which appear on another user’s screen for a few seconds then self-destruct, has added a video sharing feature to its service. In the past six weeks between 20 and 50 million photos have been uploaded daily onto Snapchat. The videos—just like the photos—will forever disappear after a single 10-second viewing. The video recording feature is currently available only on iOS devices, but Android users can still receive and view video snaps.

According to Business Insider, however, one developer has already found a flaw with the video viewing on Android devices. Although the videos are supposed to self-destruct, if an Android user doesn’t watch the video immediately, Snapchat will save the video to the phone’s gallery, in a folder called “tcs_pahn.” Developer Bob Nisco says the folder is easily searchable on Android devices. Once the video is found, it can easily be copied and saved to a different directory.

As an Android developer, this enrages me,” Nisco writes. “Did the developers take the time to even glance at the Storage Options section of the Android Developer guide? Simply put, an Android app should NEVER save data to the root of the user’s sd card. There is a very specific folder structure put in place, and yet Android developers continue to ignore these guidelines.

The Snapchat update also introduces a new “friending” option, where users must friend one another before they can send each other snaps. Previously, users could send snaps to any username they wanted. According to TechCrunch, Snapchat founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said the friending tool came about because most early users had their first names as their user names and were often bombarded with “Hi,” snaps.

[Image via iTunes/Snapchat]