Our Snapchat
Photos that disappear after a day.
Our Snapchat is disappearing photos you run yourself. Send a picture to the people you choose and it is gone after a day — the bytes are freed from your own disk, not just hidden. Post a story to everyone who follows you, and it lasts a day too.
A snap is the one kind of content in the suite with a deadline: where a photo is published and kept, a snap is sent to a named set of people and then expires, and the sweep frees its bytes when it does. That is a different lifecycle, which is why a snap has its own storage and its own clock rather than sharing the photo feed. A story is the broadcast half — a picture posted to your followers, on the same clock — and it is the one place a moderator can take a photo down, because it sits on your own public surface.
Step by step
How to send your first snap
Every step is the real one in your own install. Nothing is sent to a third party, and nothing is kept once it expires.
- STEP 01
Have someone to send to
Snaps go to the people on your install. If you are the only person here, add a team member on the People page first — they will appear in the recipient picker.
- STEP 02
Open Snaps
From your workspace, open Our Snapchat. It shows what has been sent to you that is still live, and what you have sent with who has opened it.
- STEP 03
Choose a photo and who gets it
Pick a picture and choose the people to send it to. You can send one snap to several people at once, and you are never on your own list.
- STEP 04
They open it, and you can see that they did
Each person opens the snap on their own, and your sent list shows how many have looked. The snap disappears for everyone a day after it was sent.
- STEP 05
Or post a story
On the Stories page, post a photo to everyone who follows you. It lasts a day on the same clock, and you can pull it early at any time.
What it does
A day, then gone — and it means it
Sent to the people you choose
A snap goes to a named set of people on your install, not to a feed. Only you and the people you sent it to can open it, and anyone else gets the same answer as a snap that does not exist, so it is never confirmed to a stranger.
It really disappears
A snap is refused the instant it passes its deadline, not whenever a background job next runs, and the sweep then frees its bytes from disk. The picture is gone for good, not marked hidden.
You can see who has opened it
Each recipient opening a snap is their own fact, so your sent list shows how many of the people you sent it to have looked — the “seen” that disappearing photos are known for.
Stories, on the same clock
Post a photo to everyone who follows you and it is live for a day, then gone. A story needs no recipient list because its audience is your followers — read at view time, so it is always current.
Pull a snap early
You can take a snap back before its day is up. It disappears for everyone at once and its bytes are freed, so a recipient opening it afterwards finds nothing.
Nothing leaves your server
The photos are rows and files in your own database and your own disk. There is no lens account, no third party and no copy anywhere else — expiry frees your disk, not someone else's.
Questions
Questions people ask
Straight answers, and where something is not built yet it says so.
What is Our Snapchat?
Does the photo really disappear?
Who can see a snap I send?
What is a story, and who sees it?
Can I take a snap back before it expires?
Our Snapchat is ready on your install
It is part of Anamean and it runs on your own server — nothing to register, nothing to approve.