Goodbye Snapchat

Even though the Digital Independence Day (German only) was over two weeks ago and the next one is still almost two weeks away, I decided to break the pattern and deleted Snapchat from my phone. The account still exists, but the app is no longer on my device. Unlike other messaging apps (e.g., Instagram), the chance of me reinstalling it in a moment of weakness is extremely low—I never really understood Snapchat anyway.

What’s the Point of Snapchat?

I’ve asked myself this question many times. You could exchange messages, photos, and videos with friends, but so can every other messenger. In the early days, it was revolutionary that recipients could only view images and videos once, or that screenshots weren’t possible. But all of that has been caught up by time (and other apps).

All Your Friends on a Map

At some point, the so-called Snap Map was introduced, showing the locations of all your friends around the world. From my perspective, this isn’t a selling point for Snapchat. While you can appear as a “ghost” to hide your location, I simply revoked the app’s permission to access my location. However, this just leads to a constant prompt asking for location access every time you open the app—almost like an endurance sport.

Tabloid-Level Content

Around the same time, a new section was added where posts from other users are suggested. To me, this part was absolute trash. The content presented there is so shallow that even tabloid headlines seem profound in comparison. Often, the principle seemed to be “sex sells.” On top of that, there were almost daily friend requests from people (or rather bots) you don’t know. If you took the trouble to accept them and ask where you knew each other from, you’d often get shady responses from salespeople.

Not for Kids

What I find worst about the app is that it’s primarily targeted at children and teenagers. If I had kids, I wouldn’t want them using it. So, you might wonder why I even had Snapchat in the first place.

My Experience

When I downloaded Snapchat back in 2014, none of this nonsense existed yet. My impression of the app was mixed—I suspected most users only used the “view once” feature for questionable content. Over time, I noticed people in my circle sending each other “snaps.” Most of these were selfies with funny filters applied. One of the most popular filters added dog ears. Looking back, it was all rather cringe, but that was just how things were back then. Nowadays, these selfies are rarely sent. Often, the phone just clamors for attention; you tap the icon and see blurry, meaningless images of the floor with even more meaningless text overlaid. My brother told me that nowadays, people just send the text “RS,” which apparently stands for “resnap” or something. This is the peak of mindlessness. It’s no longer about communicating with others, but just about staying active in the app so the flames don’t go out. These flames appear when people send each other pictures or videos daily. If you forget one day, the flames disappear. If that bothers you, you can pay real money to reignite the flames and pretend nothing happened. It’s empty, meaningless, and the pinnacle of exploitation.

So, that’s my take on Snapchat. Saying goodbye isn’t hard for me. The few people I kept in touch with through the app now message me on WhatsApp, Telegram, or Mastodon. I can only advise you: Delete Snapchat from your phone. If your kids have it installed, try to delete it there too—though I suspect that will take a bit more convincing.