Without a doubt, Snapchat has taken most of the world by a storm, a grand total of more than 100 million users using the app on a daily basis. Snapchat, an image messaging and multimedia mobile application, was created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown with the intention of creating an app that sends disappearing photos. The app eventually rose to popularity as more people, specifically students, bought smartphones and found that Snapchat enabled them to send temporary messages without allowing others to view their past messages. At this rate, it appeared that Snapchat would remain as the #1 app worldwide.

      Or is it? Rising in the app charts in Asia is the clone of Snapchat, Snow. Despite of being released only recently, the app has had 30 million downloads and is favored over Snapchat in most Asian countries. Almost an exact replica of Snapchat, Snow follows the same guidelines: filters, stickers, and a timer. Unlike Snapchat, however, Snow focuses mainly on selfies, adding in fun filters like transforming your face into a sleeping koala or shaping your face into a peach. If you thought that Snapchat filters were great, then Snow most definitely stepped up the filter-game. Additionally, Snow has a chat feature which saves messages up to 24 hours, a perfect add-on for those who have trouble keeping up with the last convo.

      Snow’s popularity to primarily contributed to mainland China, where Snapchat is banned by the firewall. The reason? Snapchat stores personal data for Chinese servers outside of China; in other words, Snapchat isn’t run by the Chinese government and is thus, blocked from usage. The Chinese government required IM apps to be regularly monitored and unapproved data to be censored. In order to carry this out, there must be a certain “hole” in the app’s servers for the government to look into; however, most providers, who emphasize service’s privacy, are not willing to comply. When there is no access available to access the data, the government simply blocks it.

      At this point, you may be wondering what the pros and cons are of both apps. Snow, although sporting impressive filters, drains a tremendous amount of battery. I can say, from a personal experience, that the app shouldn’t be used for more than an hour (if you do happen to be staying on the app for that long). As for the pros, Snow automatically enhances facial features and has a greater variety of filters to pick from. Snapchat, on the other hand, presents your face as it is, and the ten-second limit seems unbelievably short at certain times, especially for those with long messages. However, Snapchat is used worldwide and thus makes it one of the easier instant messaging systems to utilize.

      Regardless of which app you prefer over the other, both serve as a recreational and entertaining way to take pictures and share with one another. Check them out in the app store and find out which one suits your taste!