Hacker News Reader

I was highly skeptical, but as of the past few months i use it more than FB and Instagram.

What I found was the limited and spontaneous nature of snapchat works well because it is much less formal and easy than a Facebook or Instagram post that I have to "compose".

I.e, i can take a silly picture of my dog and put a sticker on it and fire it out there, without having to worry about shot composition/hashtag use (Instagram), or content/grammar (FB)

View on HN

I like how you encapsulated it here. This is actually exactly why I can't use Snapchat, but I understand the appeal for others. I mostly stopped using FB because I just don't have the patience or time for low-effort/low-quality posts, and Snapchat deliberately takes the post-level a step down and creates a sort of low-effort stream of consciousness between friends.

"a sort of low-effort stream of consciousness between friends."

That's exactly the draw for many people, and why it's so sticky. It's about as close to a genuine in-person conversation as you can get. I don't think of it as low quality, just low reach. I speak more colloquially around my friends than I do my employer, and I like Snapchat because it similarly allows me to communicate "at ease".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com