Snapchat is a massive social media site that is not losing its popularity. But, it is better than text messages? Why use Snapchat instead of text?
Snapchat has more features than text messaging, has a much bigger social aspect, encourages interaction with other users and doesn’t rely on a cell connection.
Let’s look at the similarities and differences, as well as the pros and cons of each, so that you can make an educated decision about which one is right for you.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Snapchat?
Snapchat has several pros and cons based on the size of the app’s user base, the amount of time it has been around, its features and underlying structure.
Pros
The Snapchat app was initially released around 2012 and saw big improvements from 2014 onwards. As Snapchat has been around for such a long time and has high name recognition, many people have a Snapchat account, meaning you have lots of people to contact.
You also have a lot of opportunities to meet new people, which is one of the biggest drawbacks of many social media sites. Trying to expand your horizons and link up with new people is easy with Snapchat via the Stories, Discovery and the Snapchat QR code.
Snapchat’s famous delete feature only applies to Snapchats, not to text messages. So that means if you want to have a more permanent record of something, just leave it to Snapchat’s texting function.
Cons
Snapchat is based around Snapchats, Stories, and other features that tend to prioritize sending and receiving as many Snapchats as possible. This means people are not as willing to have text conversations on Snapchat, and may not open the app just for a text message.
Many people are also trying to become Snapchat famous, so the app tends to be focused on celebrities, drama, and influencers.
Texting via Snapchat is not what most people think of when dealing with Snapchat, so it can be hard to get people to message back.
Many users on Snapchat only care about boosting their Snapchat Score, which doesn’t go up with texting, so some people may ignore your message completely.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Texting?
Pros
Texting is one of the most straightforward ways to send messages. As long as you have a phone number and the other person has one that can receive messages, you’re good to go.
Texting has been around for a long time, and almost everyone who’s ever had a phone has texted, meaning you can easily text anyone and know you won’t run into any issues with them reading and sending a reply.
Cons
Texts rely on the provider’s network, so if you have a bad cell connection or something on their end is done, there’s nothing to be done even if you’re connected to the internet via WiFi.
Texting is a very old technology, so while you can swap to an MMS or other format, sending pictures, GIFs and other newer media are unlikely to work well with anything apart from the text.
Is Snapchat Safer Than Texting?
There is not much security in terms of texting, it is old technology and phone numbers can be spoofed as well as SIM cards being copied, so that means it is not that hard to make it look like a message comes from someone else.
Snapchat has an incentive to make sure their app is secure and their user’s data is protected, as constant security breaches will make their brand look band, causing an exodus of users.
Snapchats are also meant to only display for a few seconds and then be gone forever, so Snapchat does take steps to make sure their app is secure and works as intended. Snapchat has had end-to-end encryption on their network since 2018. [1]
Why Use Snapchat Instead of WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is a more basic messaging app, whereas Snapchat is a social media site that has many more features.
If you want to get into celebrities, influencers, share lots of media and see short videos or interesting pictures, Snapchat encourages sharing and looking at other people’s material.
You get streaks, photo filters, photo editing, and also are able to send messages that will delete after a set time.
WhatsApp is more of a way to text message, and send messages over the internet, to a person or groups of people. However, if you are interested in Snapchat, but you are a fan of WhatsApp, consider using WhatsApp status that is very similar to Snaps.
