Quote Originally Posted by vitamin View Post
The vast majority of content sent to chat is a spur of the moment useless media.
I.e what i'm eating or what i'm doing.
Rarely warrants repeated viewings.

So instead of having videos and images that's only viewed once and hog up valuable disk space on your phone. (which later may require spring cleaning)

snap chat simply lets you view it once. Then discard it.

This function is also useful for Nudes. you send someone nudes. they see it and can't save for a later date and show their mates or use as revenge porn. A for your eyes only kind of things.
And if the recipient takes a screen shot of the image, Snapchat will let you know, but by then it's too late to do anything I suppose. Also, if a friend (of the recipient) takes a photo of the phone, you will have no idea it's been done.