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December 14, 2012 11:00 pm GMT

Snapchat Releases Video Sharing, Is Prototyping Monetization Features (Oh, And Its Still Not For Sexting)

photo (5)Snapchat, the popular impermanent photo-sharing mobile app, is rolling out a major new feature: video sharing. Users can now share 10-second videos the same way they share pictures by taking the picture or video, setting a timer from 1-10 seconds for the content to disappear after the user opens it, and sending it to another user. Ive used the feature in beta and Im a big fan. The time from opening the app to recording video is about a second, making it easy to quickly snap a video of your friends doing something stupid or funny. Video recording is currently only available for iOS users, although Android users can receive and view video snaps. The video starts recording when you press and hold the center record circle and stops when you take your finger off of it. The process feels seamless and very similar to the user experience of opening and viewing snaps. Its the kind of simple feature that I personally wouldnt think of developing, but once Ive used it I wonder why everything doesnt record this way. The update also includes a new friending process, where users have to accept each other as friends before they can send each other snaps. Previously, users could just snap any usernames they wanted; existing users wont have to friend people who are already on their friend lists. The friending process will make the Chatroulette-esque element of Snapchat voluntary, as users have to agree to snap with random people. Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, says the friending tool partially came about because most early users, including himself and most of his friends, had their first names as their usernames and were being bombarded with random Hi snaps. He adds that the companys focus will continue to be on mobile, despite the fact that the new friending tool and public web profiles could set up a social graph and network for Snapchat. Of course, this new video feature will inevitably give rise to another round of lazy, small-minded posts about how the app can only be used for sexting. Oh No, The Kids Are Sextin! Some idiot went on a crusade last week to get as many naked snaps as possible from random users, took screenshots of them all and put them on a (now shut down) Tumblr, Snapchat Sluts, leading to another round of articles about how the app

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3L5zcBVhzX4/

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