Looking to expand beyond just being a app that lets you send photographs that delete shortly afterwards, Snapchat announced on Thursday that the app was redesigned to allow for text and video messaging.
"The goal has always been to move beyond messaging, co-founder Evan Spiegel told The New York Times. "We're trying to take the traditional text conversation and make it better.
The major overhaul of Snapchat will allow users to easily switch between the three features on the fly, so it's more "free-flowing," and Spiegel is clearly hoping that the addition of video and text messaging will help snare more users. "If I'm walking around and want to show you something, why do I have to switch apps?"
The move isn't especially surprising as anyone who wanted to communicate via Snapchat had to make do with only a miserable caption option before, reports NBC News. Snapchat also clearly wants a piece of the lucrative pie that is mobile messaging.
The popular cross-platform messaging service Whats App claims to have over 450 million users and was acquired by Facebook a few months ago for a cool $19 billion. Marks Zuckerberg's social media company also tried to purchase Snapchat, but the company passed on the $3 billion offer.