

Snapchat Isn’t Just for Sexting - scottrblock
http://scottblock.com/snapchat-isnt-just-for-sexting/

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martythemaniak
A bit off-topic, but since I heard about Snapchat I've been wondering:
Couldn't they almost guarantee* a self-destruct? Right now, they notify the
sender if the receiver takes a screenshot right, but don't to anything to
actually prevent that screenshot.

Can't they slice the image into many small parts, group them into N groups,
then flash each group for 1/Nth of a second, essentially creating a looping
video out of an image? A screenshot would then only take the current frame
buffer, which would be only a part of the image and hopefully not useful. The
image would have ghostly appearance, but it'd offer much better protection.
OTOH, this sounds like an overly-complicated technical solution - after all
notification only is much simpler and seem to offer a "good enough" solution.

*of course, it'd be very hard to protect anything when sending bits to someone else - someone can patch the app to get rid of the timer, dump the image to disk etc etc.

~~~
corin_
POC: [http://blog.persistent.info/2012/12/screenshot-proof-
images-...](http://blog.persistent.info/2012/12/screenshot-proof-images-via-
temporal.html)

HN discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4955639>

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ynniv
So it's not just about sexting, but communicating by sending pictures to
another smartphone? What's next, short messages and duplex voice chat?

</sarcasm>

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ryandvm
As somebody that tried to peddle a Snapchat competitor for Android (before
Snapchat blew up), yes, it's pretty much just for sexting.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.pr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appidio.privy)

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tremblanc
Asking this question in earnest. What other applications does one use this
apart from sexting? I thought of it, even read articles that talk about how it
changes how we communicate, etc. I just can't think of a use for this.

