Snapchat
More info
- Creator
- Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Reggie Brown
- Released
- Owner
- Snap Inc.
- Type
- Messaging & image app
- Website
- snapchat.com
- Wikipedia
- en.wikipedia.org
Ephemeral photo/video messages — Evan Spiegel and others, 2011. Introduced two formative concepts: ephemeral content (disappears after viewing) and Stories (24-hour feed).
AR Lenses and world effects made it a pioneer of real-time AR on phones. Lost cultural gravity to TikTok and Instagram (which directly copied Stories in 2016). Remains strong with teens and in the US.
Backend: AWS + Google Cloud heavy, Python/Java/Go mix. Spectacles glasses have lived through seven iterations without finding a market.