Snapchat’s claim to fame is the fact that after recipients view the Snap, the company deletes the content from their servers as well as the Snapchat mobile app. In May, Snapchat settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over charges that “it deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service”.

There are various apps and tools, outside the Snapchat app, that allow recipients to save their photos and video messages. They then have access to them for an indefinite period.

On October 14, Snapchat warned their users about connecting to third-party applications, that they violate their Terms of Use and couldn’t be trusted. “A third-party application is any application that accesses the Snapchat API, but hasn’t been built and maintained by our company. Given the popularity of Snapchat and the size of our community, it’s no surprise that a cottage industry of app-makers has popped up to provide additional services to Snapchatters. Unfortunately, these applications often ask for Snapchat login credentials and use them to send or receive snaps and access account information.”

These warnings arose when a third-party that offered to save Snaps was compromised and approximately 200 000 Snapchat photos were leaked.

Starting November 11, Snapchat announced on their blog, they will start notifying Snapchatters, who they detect to be using third-party apps, to stop using these “unauthorized” apps and to change their passwords. “We’ve enjoyed some of the ways that developers have tried to make Snapchat better. Unfortunately, some developers build services that trick Snapchatters and compromise their accounts. We want to prevent that from happening in our community. Starting today, we will notify Snapchatters when we have detected that they may be using third-party apps and we’ll ask those Snapchatters to change their password and stop using unauthorized apps”.

Snapchat haven’t provided a public API to developers and have prohibited access to their private API. However, they are working on it, but want to take their time to get it right.

photo credit: ladybeames via photopin cc