Snapchat have partnered with voter-registration app TurboVote in the USA so that the millennials can ensure they get registered to vote before November. WHY DIDN’T WE GET THIS IN THE UK FOR OUR ELECTION?? If we had had this latest initiative prior to the UK Referendum vote then the outcome might have been very different because all those lovely millennials of ours could have registered to vote from the comfort of their own duvet, instead of just talking about it a lot and then not bothering to get registered in time so not having a vote and then being really pissed off with the results.
For the US election this is great news and will hopefully make a massive difference to the turn out of the young things who really really have to vote in this election if they want a future that doesn’t destroy them. To be honest, you still have to find a way to get them out to the polling stations, but at least this is one step in the right direction – maybe by November they will be able to actually vote online? This should frankly be one of the best uses of the modern day internet and we haven’t done it yet.
So far, in order to register, you have to go to the Stories and Discover pages on Snapchat and find TurboVote’s videos. Each one features celebrities — such as Jimmy Fallon and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — who instruct you to swipe up to access the registration page. The entire process takes about one minute apparently and if your state requires you to mail in any forms, the app will help you coordinate the paperwork.
In addition, I see that Snapchat is losing the “chat” to be renamed Snap Inc. The company will also release video-recording sunglasses called Spectacles this Autumn. They will contain a 115-degree angle lens that will allow the wearer to record up to 30 seconds of video. Users will be able to post videos directly to the Snapchat app and these advancements prove Snap is prepared to move beyond its social-sharing app and into hardware to compete against its biggest rival, Facebook.
