Microsoft follows Snapchat, removes unofficial third-party apps

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After Snapchat disabled all its unofficial third-party apps last month, Windows Phone Store followed suit to increase its security features. 

Based on the reports posted on Windows Central over the weekend, all the unofficial apps for Snapchat were taken out of the app store. This was rolled out in order to bolster the security to prevent the same breach that happened several months ago. 

One of the third-party apps that was affected by this new development is the popular chat app called 6snap. Developer Rudy Hyun confirmed the news on his Twitter account, saying, "6snap has disappeared as well as all snapchat apps on store. I will work closely with Microsoft now to convince snapchat to change its mind." 

Snapchat decided to take this drastic action after a wide security breach leaked thousands of user information and images of Snapchat account users earlier this year. They blamed the breach on third-party services, which is why the photo messaging app chose to disable all the API's third party apps like 6snap. 

However, there are reports saying that the ban on the third-party apps may not last forever, since there are talks about the development of a mobile messaging platform from Snapchat itself. It means that there will be an official API to let other apps connect to the photo messaging service without compromising the privacy of their users. 

This is in contrast with Huyn's statement on Twitter over the weekend, saying that Snapchat is not planning to release an official app. However, the app developer suggested several alternatives for the photo messaging app and social networking service site. These include Skype Qik, CyberDust, Facebook Messenger, as well as MMS.

As of May 2014, around 700 million photos and videos were sent each day using Snapchat, developed by former Stanford University students named Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown.