My least favorite part of Snapchat is mistakenly opening a video Snap when I can’t hear it, like in a noisy public place or when my sound is off. Snapchat tried to address that today with an experimental new Replay feature that lets you rewatch one old Snap per day. But by fixing that problem it created a much bigger one. It killed off some of its ephemerality.
A lot of the excitement and urgency of Snapchat stems from the fact that you only get one shot to look at a Snap. That means you have to pay close attention and be fully engaged.
But with Replay, you can be lazy. Once a day you can re-view a Snap a second time if you don’t close the app or get another Snap first. “Oh, that looked funny. Wow, they looked sexy. I’ll watch it again.”
It’s not quite the “forever” of Facebook’s Timeline, but suddenly I’m a bit more self-conscious of what I send. Did I line up the shot right? Does my stupid hair look ok?
A big draw of Snapchat was that once someone had viewed your Snap, it only lived on in their imperfect memory. That made sending them carefree and lightweight — something I’d do without second guessing what could happen. That encouraged the silly and racy behavior Snapchat thrives on, and set it apart from other photo sharing services that create a permanent record you have to worry about.
Now whoever I send a Snap to can verify their first impression, show it to someone else, or get a second camera or phone out and secretly screenshot it. This makes sexting with Snapchat a lot more risky. Who wants to flash their jubblies if they have to worry they’ll get replayed in front of a crowd or a camera?
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