Ten days after it first launched in private beta, Snapchat’s new Android video messaging feature has today emerged from testing and has gone live on Google Play, along with a few other improvements.
In keeping with Snapchat’s self-combusting style, Android-toting Snapchatters can now add video to the range of messages that they can send to friends via the service. The company says it hasn’t been the smoothest of rides porting video functionality to Google’s platform, but it is finally here.
Snapchat explains in its blog post:
Making Snapchat video for Android has been exciting, but has also had its fair share of challenges. The Android phones that many of us use were never designed with Snapchat in mind, and that can be tough when developing a hardware-based application. The video feeds and playback behavior can differ greatly – often with no guarantees or warnings. Some users will still experience difficulties, and we want to work with you to make Snapchat perfect (email us!), but we hope many of you simply come to love video snaps.
Snapchat video is much the same as images, and the clips — which can be up to 10-seconds in length — can be configured to disappear from view from between 1-10 seconds after being watched. The port to Android comes two months after launching on iOS.
Reaching version 2.0, Snapchat has gained a new notification system that can be customised to deliver a range of different alerts. The app has been tweaked to run more efficiently and now is “significantly more reliable when you are out and about.”
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Both camera frame-rates and navigation speed have also been improved as a result of Snapchat’s camera improvements.
➤ Snapchat: Google Play | App Store
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