Microsoft is taking on Snapchat with its new WindUp app

Despite a few recent setbacks Snapchat’s popularity continues to grow, but for anyone using Windows Phone there’s still no way to officially join in on the photo-sharing fun. It’s another classic example of Microsoft’s crippling app gap, which has hobbled the company from making much progress with its third-place mobile operating system. Now Microsoft is taking matters into its own hands with WindUp, a new Snapchat knockoff that’s just for Windows Phone.

Microsoft is obviously sick of waiting for an official Snapchat app to make an appearance inside the Windows Phone Store, and has simply written its own version instead. The new app is called WindUp, and lets users send time limited messages to friends. WindUp has the ability to send text messages, or those containing photos – either from your gallery, or live using the camera – video, or even audio recordings to your friends. The message can be limited either by time, or a set number of views. Microsoft says the app’s name comes from the chance to “wind up” your friends, as they rush to see your latest picture before it disappears forever. Microsoft isn’t the first to come up with a Snapchat competitor. In June, Facebook launched Slingshot, the second app from its Creative Labs department, which functions in exactly the same way to the popular photo-sharing app. Then, at the end of July, Facebook-owned Instagram came out with Bolt, which spiced things up by leaving it down to you when to delete the photo, or to recall a message moments after it was sent.