Nearly all of the tech coverage I read about Snapchat’s latest update lead with “stickers” being part of the update. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bob the walrus. But how can they not lead with the fact that they’ve added realtime video and voice calling?
I remember the first time I ever tried video chatting on a Macintosh in 2004. That was over 12 years ago! I used iChat and spoke to a shirtless Chris Clark (who was then living in Perth, Australia). The video quality left a lot to be desired. But it was a miracle!
Last night I tried Snapchat’s Chat 2.0 update and started a video chat with Matt. It worked really well (once I stopped Photos from syncing). You can send photos, stickers, text, all while carrying on a live video conversation. If the person isn’t available to chat live you can leave them a video to watch later.
Some call Snapchat confusing but I’d be willing to bet that those that use it (hundreds of millions of people) would consider these features easier to use than Facetime or Skype.
It amazes me that live video chat is now a “throw away” feature when talking about an app update.