Nir Eyal describes his recent experience using Snapchat, emphasizing how its 10-second snap constraint and simple creator tools make it easy to assemble short, habit-forming videos without heavy post-production. He contrasts initial skepticism about content quality with discovering creators (e.g., Mark Suster, Justin Kahn) and argues that constraints can improve a product (parallel to Twitter's 140-character limit). He closes by inviting viewer questions via Snapchat.
Chapters
So I've been using Snapchat a lot over the past few days, ever since.
My friend Morgan Brown kind of introduced.
Me to how to do these little snap storms. And I think there's some really interesting insights around how habit forming Snapchat is not just from a consumer perspective, but.
From a creator perspective.
To be honest, I didn't get into Snapchat for quite a while because I didn't actually see the content that I.
Was consuming as all that interesting.
I mean, I know DJ Khaled is a big deal and lots of people.
Follow him, but it's kind of boring after a few times that it wasn't really getting that much out of it. I probably didn't pronounce DJ Khaled correctly. So anyway, I'm older than the average viewer, I guess, but then I saw people like Mark Suster and Justin Kahn using the platform in really interesting ways. Then I realized that it's really the creator tool that is new when it comes to creating these videos.
People have been making these videos on YouTube where they give a few seconds of commentary and then they kind of.
Jump cut them together, just like you see. But that requires a ton of post production editing.
I love the fact that with just 10 seconds at a time, I can collect my thoughts and say what I want to say before the time runs out. And then by stitching all these ideas together, I can make a cohesive 2, 3 minute video.
So that when you watch this, it.
Seems like I'm just talking extemporaneously, but really I screwed up about a dozen.
Times in making this. I think that's really interesting.
I think it's a great example of.
How adding a constraint can make a product better. Reminds me of the 140 character limit on Twitter and now this 10 second.
So while I love Snapchat and I'm really appreciative of everybody watching these videos, I'm actually really excited about the fact that I can make these videos very.
Quickly on Snapchat and then post them to you.
Really great way to capture a few thoughts that have kind of been bouncing around my head without spending a lot of time writing a blog post. I could just make a quick video and keep track of it and share.
The only problem is that I'm walking around San Francisco holding up a phone in my face like a if you'd.
Like to continue to see me acting like a moron, please send me questions. Happy to answer them over Snapchat and thanks for watching.
