How you can't get Snapchat on Windows Phone: The whole sorry saga

If y'all're new to the platform in particular, you might be wondering why you can't have it. After all, iPhone and Android owners have it, right?

With at that place being no promise for the tertiary-political party offerings nosotros did have, here'due south a run down of the tale of Snapchat and Windows Phone.

No official app

Snapchat

That's the first and well-nigh of import thing in this whole story. Snapchat doesn't accept an official app for Windows Telephone. And it doesn't look like it plans to have one any fourth dimension in the foreseeable future.

But why is that?

Snapchat CEO, Evan Spiegel, plain doesn't care much for Windows Phone.

Then there was the time yous could asking support for your currently unsupported device. And so there was the time that went away. Whatever the actual reason behind it, the only official way to pressure Snapchat for an app disappeared into the night.

Will that ever change? Volition Snapchat e'er relent and release an official app for Windows Phone? Nosotros're not holding our breath.

The tale of the third-party

Swapchat

Where official support is lacklustre, or completely absent, the splendid Windows Phone developer community oft comes through. Instagram is a fine example of this. Despite having an official app, it's been over a year since it was updated and there are third-party solutions that offer a much better experience.

And so, in the absenteeism of Snapchat, enter the likes of Swapchat, 6Snap and a few others.

6Snap in detail went on to get a community favorite. Developer, Rudy Huyn, is a committed and talented Windows Telephone developer. As with his Instagram app, 6Tag, 6Snap arguably had a meliorate overall user experience than the official Snapchat apps on other platforms.

Back up from source is something nosotros'd always welcome. But as long equally there's a skillful solution, it'south not the end of the world.

So what happened?

6Snap

Snapchat had some security issues. Later a huge number of users photos were stolen and posted online, Snapchat clamped downwards on allowing tertiary-political party services access.

Apps such equally 6Snap used opposite-engineered APIs to become them into Snapchat. And information technology was 3rd-political party apps that were ultimately responsible for the security alienation.

So, in a not totally unjustifiable movement, Snapchat started to clamp downwards on its users not sending their Snaps through official channels. Commencement by offer a warning, then by locking accounts, and and then the biggest blow of all, having tertiary-party apps removed from the Store.

And that means as of right now, Windows Phone has no Snapchat. At all.

The future

Snapchat was supposedly developing a public API of some sort. But that nevertheless hasn't materialized. And despite the all-time efforts of people similar Rudy Huyn, Snapchat doesn't want to know.

So, the future, if y'all're a Snapchatter, is bleak on Windows Telephone. It's a sad land of diplomacy, merely it's the world nosotros alive in. What would it take for Snapchat to give in and brand an app? Who knows.

A change of attitude towards the platform would be top of the list.