Snapchat started out as a simple app to send temporary photos to others, but it slowly evolved into a full-fledged messaging service (and video platform). Today, Snapchat unveiled a major new feature: a desktop web app.
Snapchat today announced the release of a web-based version of Snapchat, available at web.snapchat.com, which can be used to message and call friends from a desktop or laptop computer. It is only officially compatible with Google Chrome at the moment, but it supports chat reactions and chat reply. Lenses, augmented reality filters for videos and photos, are coming “soon”.
Now that Snapchat is officially available outside of Android, iPhone, and iPad for the first time, it’s much closer to Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and other cross-platform messaging services. Considering the platform’s 332 million daily users, there’s sure to be plenty of people already using Snapchat, and desktop access makes chatting on the platform much more convenient – no more reaching your phone.
There’s a catch: the web app is only available to Snapchat+ subscribers right now. The Snapchat+ subscription service was introduced last month and costs $3.99 per month, and includes other pre-release and experimental features. There’s a good chance the web client will eventually roll out to all Snapchat users – Snap said “we look forward to rolling it out soon to our entire global community” – but there’s no news yet. precise timetable for this.
Source: Snap
