Is Snapchat only used for sexting? We asked 5,000 people to find out.

As evidenced by its growing media buzz and copycats, Snapchat is one of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups.  The Snapchat smartphone app lets users send messages, pictures, and videos that disappear once they’re viewed.  Launched last year, it already has millions of users, with a strong slant towards a younger audience.

The conventional wisdom is that Snapchat’s self-destruct feature encourages “inappropriate” uses like sexting – the sending or receiving of texts, photos, or videos of a sexual nature.  And Snapchat’s own onboarding process, featuring two scantily clad ladies, seemingly promotes that use case:

We decided to put this Snapchat-for-sexting speculation to the test by running a survey on our own Survata research network.

How prevalent is sexting on Snapchat?
We interviewed 5,475 US respondents aged 18 to 29 between January 19 and February 1, 2013.  From that pool, we found 715 self-reported Snapchat users, and 13.1% of them admitted to sexting.  Naturally, this begs the question of whether 13.1% is high or low.  As a baseline for comparison, we interviewed a completely separate group of 453 self-reported text messaging users.  26.5% of text messaging users admitted to sexting, in line with prior studies.

So, our first conclusion: Sexting is less frequent among Snapchat users than among text messaging users.  Consider this myth busted.

Men are from Mars… 

The story doesn’t stop there, though.  In our study, both gender and age affect one’s proclivity to sext.  Whether over Snapchat or text messaging, men are significantly more likely than women to sext.  On Snapchat in particular, sexting is more than twice as common among men than women!

Also, against the stereotype of party animal college students, we found that on Snapchat, 23 to 29 year olds actually sext more than 18 to 22 year olds.

If not for sexting, then what?

If sexting is fairly rare, then what is truly driving the Snapchat craze?  To find out, we asked 260 Snapchat users, via a free response question, how they used the app.  Frequently cited uses were to “send funny pictures to my friends” or “make silly faces for my friends” or “send jokes to my friends.”  Perhaps this is just a new communication paradigm for a younger generation.  As a Snapchat representative wrote, “There’s a reason why it’s illegal to record a phone call without permission - and it’s not because everyone is having phone sex.”

So keep on snapping, kids; we adults will try to be less suspicious going forward.

Footnotes for our fellow data geeks

1. We asked self-reported Snapchat users “Have you ever used Snapchat for “sexting”? (Sending or receiving texts, photos, or videos involving nudity or of a sexual nature)”
2. We asked self-reported text messaging users “Have you ever used text messaging for “sexting”? (Sending or receiving texts, photos, or videos involving nudity or of a sexual nature)”
3. The margin of error for the percent of users who sext over Snapchat is 3.7%. The margin of error for the percent of users who sext over text messaging is 4.6%.
4. When survey results are weighted by gender, the difference between sexting prevalence on Snapchat vs text messaging is slightly more pronounced — 27.2% of text messaging users and 12.7% of Snapchat users report sexting (unweighted is 26.5% vs 13.1%).
5. You can see the original data set here, or play with it in Statwing (Snapchat respondents here, text messaging respondents here).
6. Acknowledgements: Thank you to Jacob Wenger, Greg Laughlin, Harendra Guturu, and Russell Morton for helpful comments.

• www.facebook.com/james.warner.7568 James Warner

  I guess Will Smith was right after all: Parents just don’t understand.

• Bill Westwood

  nice. this is like digital mythbusters.

• twitter.com/sambfries Sam Fries

  “On Snapchat in particular, sexting is more than twice as common among men than women!”

  I’m pretty sure the only real conclusion you can draw is that men are twice as likely than women to claim to have sexted on Snapchat.

• Isaac

  Or gay guys use it more than gay women…

• giacomoballi.com/ Giacomo Balli

  Good research although (for obvious reasons) doesn’t give the real picture: most users engaging in sexting are underage.

• Lukevdp

  how do you know?

• giacomoballi.com/ Giacomo Balli

  it was a research conducted a month or so after snapchat came out. A quick search on google should dig it out if you want.

• justinjackson.ca/ Justin

  Your analysis is broken from the beginning: “respondents aged 18 to 29″

  It’s common wisdom that Snapchat appeals particularly to those *under* the age of 18. Naturally, it’s harder to get survey results for that demographic.

• survata

  Hi Justin,
  Thanks for your comment. We did not interview respondents under 18 for this survey because it’s a sensitive topic (we consider anything of a sexual or political nature to be sensitive). Snapchat has millions of users so there is certainly plenty of 18+ users of their product. But I agree the Snapchat behavior of the under 18 crowd would be quite interesting.

• Max

  You’re out of your mind. Snapchat’s users are primarily under 18. You’d think that a survey company would have some understanding of the concept of representative samples. It’s just plain irresponsible to present these survey results as fact.