Well, that's not their version of the story. But it's one way to use it!
Graphic by Chris Ritter
Source: s3-ec.buzzfed.com
A press release from Snapchat just announced the company's plan to add video to the probably-about-sexting app for teens:
“How this works: Instead of toggling back and forth between a photo and a video setting, we’ve combined them into one button. If you want to take a photo, just tap the button. If you want to capture video, hold the button down. When you’re done recording, lift your finger. Video snaps are up to ten seconds long, and like photo snaps, can only be viewed once in the application.”
As Snapchat explodes in popularity — more than 50 million images are being sent every day, and the company recently raised at least $8 million in backing — CEO Evan Spiegel appears to be just as delightfully and willfully averse to acknowledging his app's connection to sexting as ever, telling GigaOm: “Video for Snapchat is really going to double underline what we’re all about. You get to share these really raw, really engaging moments. It’s such a crazy, powerful medium. Because it’s totally okay to be yourself and hear how awkward you are.”
The update does, however, include a "friending" mechanism, wherein users have to accept friend requests from each other before being able to send each other snaps (whether pictures or, now, videos) — previously, users could send snaps to random usernames. Still, the app remains insecure as ever, even among friends (and the only thing worse than a motionless sext is a moving, audible one), but Spiegel is acknowledging as much: "We don’t want to get into an arms race with really clever people. Which is why we’re not advocating ourselves as a secure platform. We’re not for like, CIA documents,” he told GigaOm. Yessss. All those CIA documents lying around sexily, waiting to be Snapped.