The Windows Phone Store no longer contains unofficial, third-party Snapchat apps available for users to download. Included in the apps that Microsoft took down is 6snap, which is one of the more popular third-party apps for the Windows Phone.
6snap is an unofficial client for Snapchat on Windows Phone devices, one of several as Snapchat has not yet released an official Snapchat version for Windows Phone.
Rudy Huyn, the developer of 6snap, confirmed through his Twitter account that the app has been pulled from the Windows Phone Store.
"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," Huyn tweeted.
In addition to the third-party apps such as 6snap being taken down, reports also reveal that Snapchat is making good on its threats of locking Snapchat accounts that have been using third-party apps instead of the disappearing message service's official software.
Snapchat revealed last month that it will be clamping down on third-party apps, especially after several pieces of software compromised the security of the service by saving the messages that the users sent to each other.
In October, hackers uploaded pictures and videos worth a total of 13GB to the online forum 4chan. The pictures and videos were sent through Snapchat, and were supposedly deleted automatically after a set amount of time as is the feature of Snapchat.
The hack, referred to as the Snappening, is being blamed by Snapchat on a security breach on a third-party app named Snapsave, which is an Android app that allowed users to save the pictures and videos sent through the messaging service.
The Snappening soured Snapchat's stance on allowing developers to create third-party apps that utilize its service. In November, Snapchat posted on its blog that while the company has enjoyed some of the work that developers have made into improving the Snapchat experience for its users, the company is wary of developers that have been developing software that compromises the security of the users of the service.
Snapchat said that it will be notifying users if they have been detected to be using third-party apps. The users will be requested to cease the usage of such third-party apps and to change the passwords of their accounts.
Snapchat, however, has also previously hinted that it could be working on launching a development kit to allow developers to create third-party apps less the compromises on security.
