Every stage of Snapchat you’ve almost definitely forgotten about

We were spotty-faced college kids, Converses were in fashion and the UK Top 40 consisted of Taylor Swift and Macklemore, with no in-between. But we weren’t the only new kids on the block. This was the time of Snapchat’s debut. The video messaging app, that has more than one hundred million users daily, was not nearly as refined in all its reputable glory as it is today.

Lets cast our minds back to the initial download.

It was a phenomenon. We could have conversations with our faces. Sure, we got the odd disapproving look from mum and dad, and an occasional snide comment along the lines of ‘Vanity Megan, it isn’t attractive’ but that didn’t stop us. Forget emojis, we could see our friends’ emotions in the flesh. We were more connected, empathetic and instantaneous than ever before. Genius.

Best Friends

This was an exciting prospect for a community of hormone-driven teenagers. If your bestie was on the pull, if your ex had a new lover: you knew it all. The opportunity to screen-shot and share it on the group-chat was all too convenient. The feature bought about an age of scandalous, but in the long run, irrelevant gossip and we loved it.

Look how popular I am

Stories

This feature provided us with the platform to advertise ‘look how great my life is’ or ‘look how successful I am since I left school’. For maximum impact, be sure to snap if you are on a night out, with friends, or travelling. Also, lets call it quits on the grumble of moans about that one friend that updates several hundred stories a day; you know you love it just as much as they do.

Geofilters

Nothing fills us with a greater sense of pride than taking a pretty photo of our campus and adding a Geofilter. Likewise, if you are visiting your mates at other unis, it’s important you do the same to demonstrate how cultured you are.  If you’re feeling limited by this, did you know you can make your own? Check it out on the snapchat website. #funfactoftheday

My university is better than yours

Emoji Ratings

Chaos ensued with the turn of early 2015 when we said goodbye to Best Friends and hello to Emoji Ratings. And what an overwhelming disappointment it was. No more gossip, no more scandal, no more fun. It defines our friendship with another user with an absurd mix of faces and symbols and forced us to rely on Google to discover their meaning. The only beneficial feature is the Snap-Streak. However, what starts with the eagerness to increase your streak, ends with the anxiety of it coming to an end. What a roller-coaster.

Lenses

The procrastinator’s dream. If you want a good ten minute to an hour break from your studies, why not turn yourself into a pensioner, or a dog, or if you’re feeling really funky, a flushed human with  enormous eyes and a waterfall of rainbows coming out of your mouth. Because nothing screams ‘I’m having the time of my life’ more than making your face look less like your face.

It may be cruel of me to document the highs and lows of Snapchat. After all, I consider it a blessing that the app hasn’t captured every acne-ridden, drunken photo I have taken since I first downloaded it. However, it demonstrates how greatly it has impacted our lives, from fun-loving and self-obsessed teens, to well… still fun-loving and self-obsessed adults. Whether this is viewed positively or not, I open the floor to debate.

Hats off to you Snapchat CEO’s, our small existences would have not been the same without you.