Snapchat, the disappearing-image message service popular amongst the youngsters, has now added two new features: text chats (instant messaging) and video calls. The private messaging service has confirmed that it acquired AddLive for the video calling feature.
This deal was finalized a few months ago when Snapchat was looking for a video service which could enable to integrate live video into chats of the app. On their website, AddLive advertises that it “allows companies to quickly deploy real-time communications with minimal development time.”
Snapchat has released the following statement, which confirmed the acquisition saying that:
“We are excited to welcome the AddLive team to the Snapchat family. Some of the features AddLive offers are screen-sharing, multi-party conferencing, and support for browser-based video chat via WebRTC. The company is considered a leader in the browser-based video space, having won the Best WebRTC Tool in 2013 awarded by the WebRTC Conference & Expo.”
New video chat feature automatically informs users when a friend is available to chat. User can then press and hold the video chat button to initiate live video calls. Unlike other social platforms it gives more options for private conversations while retaining the service’s famous ephemeral feature. The new Snapchat video feature is impressive not only in design, but in speed. Within seconds, video chat can be activated between any two devices, using any two different platforms.
Snapchat in total can be used for taking photos, recording videos, adding text and drawings, sending them privately, instant messaging and video calls. The app is different from most messaging apps in that users can set a time limit for how long recipients can view their ‘snaps’, after which they will be hidden from the recipient’s device and deleted from Snapchat’s servers.
Though Snapchat is possibly by now a “big” company it has raised approximately $120 million, employs more than 70 people and facilitates over 700 million photo messages every day. This acquirement is the first sign of the company gearing up to become a real force in the industry since turning down acquisition offers worth billions of dollars from the likes of Facebook and Google five months ago.
