Lead balloon

Judging by the amount of thumbs down on its Introductory YouTube Video, Snapchat's new "Snap Map" feature has gone down like a lead ballon. Snap Map allows friends to share their location on a map. It also allows users to click on the location of a given event (e.g. concert) and see all the Snap Stories that have been posted around it.

All this sounds great on paper. However there is one major hitch. By default, once Snap Map is installed, other users can constantly see your location whenever you have your Snapchat open. This of course raises privacy concerns. Whilst you may be happy to broadcast what a great time you're having at an Usher concert. You may not want people to know that you're at your bestfriend's boyfriend's house at 2am on a Wednesday morning!

Fast Food

I've always seen Snapchat as the "fast food" of social media applications. You can broadcast 'safe' in the knowledge that anything you put up won't persist on your timeline forever. Snapchat is for throwaway moments. It's for those interactions that seem great at the time but you may not want to be reminded of once the moment has past. The 'drunken one-night stand' of social media posting.

'Just because you can, doesn't mean you should'

With all the tools at a programmers disposal it's easy to get carried away with features and forget about utility. An apps USP should trump everything else. Snapchat is seen as fun, frivolous and disposal. All of a sudden users need to be cognisant of privacy and 'ghost mode' settings when it's on. If users do decide to share publicly they may need to reconsider or cull their 'friends' list lest they forget to switch it off. If you're a parent that has kids who use Snapchat, you need to be mindful their settings too.

It all sounds like hard work.

If nothing else, Snapchat is not suppose to be hard work.

Takeaway

Going public with a $28bn IPO valuation has clearly increased the need for Snap Inc to pull rabbits out of hats. I'm sure Snap Map seemed like a great idea in the board room. A useful feature for the user. A useful data gathering tool for marketers and advertisers. However the key reason for Snapchat's high valuation is its appeal to both young kids and the key 18-24 demographic. Falling out of sync with what they really want from your application can prove the death-knell to your business.

Other social media appliances take note!