What is Snapcash?

Snapchat, the (in)famous photo messaging system partners with Square to launch Snapcash — an add-on feature to Snapchat that allows users to instantly send money to their friends/contacts. Square started off with a similar peer-to-peer money sharing system via email — for their platform, the user simply types in the amount they want to send on the subject line of an email, and then the money is sent. It’s a secure way to transfer money from your debit card, and partnering with Snapchat makes their core service extra cool.

How does it work?

Of course, you need to have the Snapchat app to make this work. Once you add your debit card information, you can easily send money to your friends by typing in “$” then the amount (i.e. $15). Snapchat automatically recognizes that you’re trying to send money, so it switches to Snapcash and the yellow “send” button turns green. The user can hit the green button once they’re ready to transfer money. Sounds really easy.

Who can use it?

Right now, 18+ Android users in the US are the only ones who can use it. But Snapchat says that the app’s service will be available for iOS soon and will expand to other countries where Square is fully operational.

What problems could this bring?

Aside from security issues (which is not that bit of a threat considering that Square is the one that holds all the financial data, not Snapchat), concerns like inappropriate exchange of money for nude photos are coming up. This could be alarming because 50% of Snapchat’s users are aged 13-17. Someone could say “$10 for a photo of my boobs” and the creepy older men could send it over no problem — it is possible, right? But then again, there’s nothing stopping users from sending nude photos right now for free. Plus, Snapcash is only available for 18+ users — so technically, it’s not “illegal” anymore if someone over 18 does this. Sneaky, huh?

Is this a good move by Snapchat?

They’ve recently launched ads on their platform, so they are trying to branch out from being a purely photo messaging platform. This is actually quite strategic. I don’t have Snapchat but like me, it’s possible that consumers would be considering downloading Snapchat just to be able to easily send money (i.e. pay your share of rent to roommates, share a taxi, etc) instantly. Plus, many people who never considered downloading a financial app like Venmo and Google Wallet might just stick to Snapchat, just because it seems like it’s more fun.

 

Good job, Snapchat. You’re sneaky, but you’re good.