Snapchat

Snap Inc builds Snapchat around the camera rather than the inbox. The app opens straight into the viewfinder, and almost everything else, from chats and stories to a live map of friends, grows out of quick photos and videos passed between people who know each other.

A tap takes a photo and holding the button records video, and before sending, users can dress the shot up with Lenses, Filters and Bitmoji avatars; the community adds new Lenses every day. Chat covers live messaging, Group Stories and video calls with up to 16 friends at once, with Lenses still available mid-call, plus Friendmojis, which are paired Bitmoji made for two friends. The Stories tab shows friends' days as well as community posts matched to a user's interests, news and original shows. Spotlight collects popular Snaps and takes submissions. The Map lets people share their location with close friends or hide with Ghost Mode, Memories stores an unlimited archive of saved photos and videos, and each friendship gets its own profile page of shared moments.

Snapchat has 1,000,000,000+ installs and a 4.2 average from 39,764,135 ratings. That breaks down to 70% five stars against 14% one star, so a sizeable group is unhappy. It is ad-supported, and in-app purchases range from $0.49 to $399.99 per item. It was updated on 2026-09-22, needs Android 6.0 or newer and is rated Teen. We list 7 versions, and the latest, 14.24.0.46, is 202.3 MB.

Younger users whose friends communicate mostly in pictures will feel at home. Anyone who wants a quiet, text-first messenger or has little free storage should consider something leaner.