Snap Minis are HTML apps that run directly in Snapchat. (Graphics: Snap)
Under the name Snap Minis, Snapchat opens up for HTML-based mini-apps. With this, the US provider copies that in China and some emerging countries extremely popular principle of the so-called super-apps.
In June 2020, Snapchat mother Snap announced to expand the chat section of the app to small third-party applications. Now the first of these so-called Snap Minis are available. The HTML-based apps allow users to perform specific tasks directly in Snapchat. For starters, there is, among other things, Snap Minis from the meditation app Headspace and a self-developed app from Snap that is supposed to help friends in decision-making.
The Snap Minis are displayed below the text command and can be called from there. One click, and the respective mini-app opens in full screen mode. Since the Snap Minis are HTML-based, an expensive installation is required. Via an API, the mini-apps can interact with the Snapchat platform and, for example, access the camera. However, access to the friends list should not give it.
Snap Minis: Snapchat wants to become a super-app
Apps, which again run smaller apps, are rather rare in this country. In China and some emerging countries, however, the concept of so-called super-apps is quite widespread. More than one million such mini-apps run on the app of the Chinese chat service Wechat. The apps range from shopping offers to games. The Indian payment apps Phonepe and Paytm can also be expanded to include mini-apps, with which users can then buy flight tickets or order food, for example.
Neither in the US nor in Europe has the principle of super-apps been able to prevail so far. Which is probably one of the reasons why Snapchat is only starting with a small selection of curated minis. Companies interested in the development of Snap Minis must submit a request to the Developer page of Snapchat .
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