A survey regarding the University off Washington you to definitely polled 127 Snapchat users age 18 and over learned that 60 percent from respondents used Snapchat mainly to send “comedy posts,” while the 2nd hottest particular “snap” try a good selfie. Fourteen percent of those interviewed told you they had in the past sent sexts over Snapchat, but simply step 1.six % said they are doing so regularly.
Snapchat, which enables individuals to change messages you to thinking-destruct mere seconds once they truly are viewed, has actually drawn an estimated 82 billion users, the majority of exactly who was ranging from many years thirteen and you will twenty five, considering Business Insider. Even after their minimal shot size and concentrate into adults, the brand new UW studies also provides an unusual glimpse toward how app is employed — together with an opportunity to right incorrect Snapchat stereotypes. (The people surveyed including skewed young, that have 82 per cent of the participants between 18 and you will twenty four many years dated.)
Of many imagine Snapchat’s biggest draw is the short term nature of their messages, and therefore prompts people to display racy photo without worrying towards effects. But the experts receive brand new app’s secret interest is even easier: It is fun.
Questionnaire participants told you the fresh new app’s focus on short-term blogs will make it feel right to generally share “dumb otherwise bland” pictures to your Snapchat than simply, say, more than text, in which images try stored getting posterity. “Snapchat allows for less serious interaction,” said someone. Various 
other said Snapchat “lets me have more kitties inside my existence because my buddies who don’t generally blog post photos of the kittens towards the other social news commonly Snapchat their pets in my opinion.”
According to that it, the study’s experts blogged you to definitely for many individuals, secure messaging is not the app’s mark, whilst the “simple disappearance from texts on the interface generally seems to attention for some.”
Sexting towards Snapchat is generally less frequent than simply do you think, at the least predicated on another type of survey of adults whom play with the fresh software
Even if Snapchat is the greatest known for the mind-removing images, there be seemingly a considerable number of someone taking monitor photos of your content they found. Snapchat directs the user an alerts if someone else requires a screen sample from their content, even though there are ways with this. Most respondents from the UW investigation (53 percent) got screen shots drawn of the texts at some point, and you will a bit less (47 %) had taken monitor shots themselves. Five somebody admitted to using a beneficial time to image an email, hence prevents this new sender of knowing their photos try seized.
not, most people don’t appear to notice one its “snaps” have been saved. When questioned how they reacted to presenting a display try taken of their content, participants “additionally chose answer alternatives indicating simple (‘didn’t care’) or confident (‘thought it had been funny’) reactions,” according to the report.
In spite of the cousin infrequency away from sexting among survey’s decide to try off users, brand new boffins found that Snapchat provides a credibility to have illegal messages which had been unsatisfying particular out of downloading the latest software.
One of the 61 people who come the fresh survey but did not over they while they hadn’t utilized Snapchat, multiple expressed issues about the “a lot more connotations” of your own software. Snapchat “possess a detrimental reputation (to own sexting),” told you you to definitely. Another said it “seems used for just incorrect articles.”
Most people surveyed told you it did not express painful and sensitive photographs — such as for example sexts, photos from illegal situations or images from documents — over Snapchat, whilst ephemerality of one’s stuff could make they reduced risky to achieve this
The fresh new experts displayed its conclusions within Economic Cryptography meeting inside the Barbados the 2009 February. Top honors composer of this new papers, Franziska Roesner, is a teacher out of computer system research and you may systems in the College away from Arizona.