Facebook's WhatsApp chat application is adding a feature that was initially popularized by Snapchat: view once, disappearing photos and videos. The app is rolling out support for the feature this week.
Instagram took another big step this week in competing more directly with Snapchat. The Facebook-owned company has launched live video and disappearing photos.
In the past, we've reported on potential loopholes and issues with Snapchat's disappearing picture system that allowed adamant users to take screenshots without sending notifications or review snaps that had expired, but SnapHack is on a whole other level.
SnapHack is an app for iOS that, for just $1, lets users pull and permanently save every single snap their friends send their way -- no more disappearing photos or videos.
Snapchat has been a huge success since it was first introduced in September 2011. Competing with the likes of Instagram, Facebook and other photo sharing platforms, Snapchat set itself apart by offering the fleeting experience of disappearing photos. When you send a photo, you set a time-limit of up to 10 seconds. After that, the photo allegedly disappears.
But unfortunately for the app's user base, which is currently sharing a whopping 150 million photos daily, it turns out those photos aren't quite so fleeting. A Utah-based forensics firm has discovered that the photos are still stored on the receiving phone.