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June 26, 2014

Slingshot is Now Available to International Users

Most people are familiar with Snapchat. It is a photo messaging application that was actually developed by two Stanford University students, Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy as a class project. The application allows users to take photos, record videos, add text and drawings and send them to a controlled list of recipients.

Keeping descriptions as straightforward as possible, these sent photographs and videos are simply known as Snaps. Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps, which as of April 2014, was from one to 10 seconds, after which they will be hidden from the recipient's device and deleted from Snapchat's servers. According to Snapchat in May 2014, the app's users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day.

Slingshot is similar yet vastly different from Snapchat. It does allow you to quickly share your photos and videos with a group of people, however in order for your friends to see what you have been up to, they will have to also send something in return. This is called a Sling. It sounds to me like it is a sort of barter system. If you want to see a picture, you have to sling something back in return. It is what is considered as payment for allowing you the view.

At the beginning of the year, Facebook attempted to buy Snapchat, much in the same way it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp. The offer was for $3 billion in cash. Spiegel, who is Snapchat’s CEO, turned down the offer. He was quoted in a Forbes interview as saying, “There are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this. I think trading that for some short-term gain isn’t very interesting.”

Facebook launched Slingshot in the U.S. early last week. This week, the announcement is that Slingshot will be available to the rest of the world. In a blog post for Slingshot, the following was listed, "Since we launched last week, we’ve heard from lots of people around the world who are excited to give Slingshot a try. Starting today, we’re expanding our initial launch and making Slingshot available internationally."

One of the concepts that Facebook is attempting to promote with Slingshot is that instead of everyone else simply being spectators for what others are posting, you will have to become a participant by slinging something back. That, in turn makes you a creator and not just a spectator. The other idea is that Slingshot is designed to actually encourage conversations between groups and not just a way of looking at pictures.

The app is available for iPhones running iOS 7 and Android devices running either Jelly Bean or KitKat. Slingshot does not require that you have a Facebook account in order to use it. However, Facebook does offer the option of linking up with an account. In addition, a user is also asked whether they want to upload their contacts list to the company's servers which will make it easy find people that you know.

According to a description on the Slingshot website, you can share your screen with anyone, anywhere wirelessly, as well as documents. You can share your smartphone, tablet or computer screen with anyone in a Slingshot session. So you can see that it does offer you a lot of options, of course, you have to decide what you are willing to give up in return since this is, as I see it, a barter system.




Edited by Maurice Nagle


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