4 reasons Snapchat is terrible for messaging

Snapchat is the 10th most popular social network in the world, with 91% brand awareness and 75% market penetration among consumers ages 13 to 34. This number rises to 90% when you lower the range to consumers ages 13 to 24. These numbers are impressive to say the least, and any company would sacrifice almost anything to get their hands on them.

But have you noticed something wrong with these demographic data? Snapchat users are incredibly young. Because they are so young, they are not all that lucrative, at least not when compared to middle-aged consumers at the peak of their incomes. That’s the problem with Snapchat: despite incredible brand recognition and market penetration, the instant messaging service-turned-social media platform continues to lose money. Even when this yellow ghost tries to monetize its users, they are either too young to submit to data collection and sale, or just not interested in paying for a commodity service with countless competitors.

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Frankly, I hate Snapchat. I’ve hated Snapchat since I was a teenager when it started to gain popularity among my generation. And as I continue my career as a tech writer with a passion for all things cybersecurity, my criticism of the platform has only intensified. If there’s one goal in this article, it’s to convince someone to delete Snapchat like I did. As of 2024, social media companies are widely considered pretty awful. There are plenty of whistleblowers and reports that highlight how harmful and dangerous social media is not only for the development of young minds, but for society as a whole with the rise of disinformation. Still, as long as we continue to allow social media companies to operate, they (probably) need to make money. Eventually, Silicon Valley venture capitalists will (probably) get rid of them. That being said, Snapchat is not a service you or your friends should use. Here’s why:

1 The false perception of privacy on Snapchat

The lack of E2E encryption is what bothers me most.

My close friends keep insisting that they love Snapchat because of the disappearing photos. The problem with this perception of privacy is that it’s only a facade. Unlike iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal, Snapchat is not end-to-end (E2E) encrypted, meaning that all messages sent and received on the platform are stored on company servers and can be viewed by employees or handed over to law enforcement.

The lack of E2E encryption is my biggest complaint about Snapchat, not to mention the fact that it continues to bully, harass and abuse young people because messages “disappear” making it harder for young people to save anything.

2 Forced AI Chatbot

Why can’t I delete this?

If you use Snapchat and have declined to subscribe to Snapchat+, you might be wondering how you can remove the ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot at the top of your message list. Well, you can’t. It’s a feature, not a bug. We don’t know if it’s to garner investor support by cramming AI where no one wants it, or to collect more user data to sell, but Snapchat makes it possible to remove it only if you pay a fee.

Outside of ads, I’ve always felt that forcing people to remove features is the antidote to users, not the other way around. The irony of Snapchat adding this is that it increases the dislike of users like me who already hate the app. The people who actually use Snapchat, mostly teenagers, just ignore this and laugh at the inconvenience. 5 stars for Snapchat.

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3 Spotlight and story are terrible

Completely misleading

If you’ve read half of this article and you haven’t already picked up on my sarcastic tone, I don’t think Snapchat is a social media platform. Snapchat is an instant messaging service. I can only assume that investors will pay a premium for a promising social media platform in hopes of tapping into the next Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, but the reality is that the monetization potential facing Discord, Telegram, and other consumer instant messengers is limited.

Outside of messaging, Spotlight and Stories are what I consider to be the closest thing Snapchat has to a social media feature. Stories are algorithmically curated vertical videos made by Snapchatters that are surfaced to users based on their interests, likes, shares, and other metrics. The problem with Spotlight is that it’s flooded with misleading and fake content that continues to feed an addictive cycle of mindless scrolling — and the content is even more boring than TikTok or Instagram Reels.

Four Porn nightmare

Snapchat is doing everything it can to drive traffic

Lastly, I want to say that Snapchat is becoming a nightmare filled with adult content. And I don’t mean between users. It’s true that many users are using it to send sexual content, leading to various situations of sex toting, exploitation, and even suicide. There is also a worrying openness to becoming an adult platform, with easy access to spotlights and stories with sexual content, and “premium Snapchat” accounts encouraging adult content creators to use the platform as a rival to OnlyFans.

To be clear, I have no problem with adult content creators making a living or doing the work they do. What I do have an issue with is a “social media platform” that is primarily used by minors simultaneously rolling out features that use content intended for 18+ people.

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