Facebook recently purchased WhatsApp. They also tried to purchase Snapchat, but was unsuccessful to Yahoo. They paid $19 billion dollars for the famous app, but was it money well spent? Since Facebook is now the proud owner of WhatsApp, what will become of Snapchat? Which one is better, and which one has the better user experience?
The Only Similarity is They’re Messaging Applications!
Many people think that they are the same thing and may overlook one or the other. However, while they’re messaging apps, they are diverse. Snapchat has an audience of teens and young adults. WhatsApp has a broad array of users. WhatsApp is owned and operated by Facebook, Snapchat is run by Yahoo. WhatsApp has been around since 2009, Snapchat since 2011. Snapchat was originally created by a group of Stanford Students who needed an app to work in their busy lives. Snapchat is free, while WhatsApp is free for a year, and then it costs $.99 per year after that.
How Do They Work?
WhatsApp uses the cellular phone and doesn’t require any username and password. It syncs the contacts so that users don’t need to manual add them. WIFI is a must or this application won’t work. It can only be used on cell phones but no tablet or computer. One thing that WhatsApp wins on is the fact that they have no advertisements, no game requests and no gimmicks. That alone is worth a dollar per year. Snapchat isn’t limited to just cellphones, it can be used on iOS and Android devices alike. They also use promotional from advertisers to help support the app’s cost.
Memory Internal Verses External Storage
Snapchat protects the phone’s memory. Anyone taking a video or photo can send it away and then it will disappear from the memory within 10 seconds. Photos can be edited with the built in editing software and then visual messages can also be screenshot. While WhatsApp can do some of these things, what it does is plug up the memory. Everything that is done within this application is saved to the phone, it doesn’t auto delete either. This is a big problem for low-end devices with poor memory.
Who Has The Larger Network?
With 30 million active users. Snapchat has a very busy interface with 700 million videos, pictures and texts being sent out each day. Speed is also important. Snapchat sends “snaps” from user to user in anywhere from 1-10 seconds. WhatsApp has 600 million users, and to many transactions a day to even count. This is due to their expansion and partnership with Chinese messaging “WeChat.” One must keep in mind that because Snapchat only has 30 million users, they can give the speed that some want. The more people on a server, the slower it will be. WhatsApp is not slow by any means, but they are not delivering messaging as quickly as their competitor.
Security
Messages are supposed to be deleted automatically with Snapchat. Recently, the server was hacked and more than 100,000 messages, videos and pictures were stolen. There was a big issue over this and it made many people doubt their security levels. WhatsApp doesn’t use the cloud like so many other messaging applications. However, what they have done is added the services of TextSecure to their app. This adds an additional security measure to make sure things are safe. Since their inception in 2009, they had a small issue in 2011, but customers prove to be happy and feel confident in security measures.
When comparing Snapchat and WhatsApp, it is clear to see who the winner is. While Snapchat has many great offerings, WhatsApp is available to reach to the masses and provide an all around better product. They have been around a great deal longer, and now that they are owned by Facebook, the sky is the limit.