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How to permanently delete Snapchat photos

Published May 24th, 2013 3:50PM EDT
Snapchat Photo Deletion App
Image: Snapchat

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Snapchat has taken the mobile world by storm. The application allows users to send pictures and videos to friends that will self-destruct after a maximum of 10 seconds. Even better, if someone tries to take a screenshot of the image, the sender is automatically notified. Although its founders may not be proud of it, the application has become rather popular among the “sexting” crowd, a practice in which you send naked pictures and videos to another person. The application isn’t perfect, however. As we saw earlier this year, SnapChat videos can be secretly saved. The truth of the matter is that while Snapchat deletes the images from its servers, they are still stored deep inside the receiver’s smartphone and can be retrieved with the proper knowledge. There are ways to permanently delete Snapchat photos, though.

Clean Master is a free Android application that clears the app’s cache, search history and more, and a recent update now allows it to delete old Snapchat photos that are secretly stored on your device.

“When news broke out recently that Snapchat photos could be recovered, we naturally took a keen interest in this and even speculated that our product already made Snapchat photo recovery unlikely,” said Adam Morley, product Manager of Clean Master at KS Mobile. “After a full investigation, we found that with a minor tweak we could quickly customize our operations to clear out the .nomedia Snapchat files and help ensure the privacy of our users.”

The application not only deletes old photos sent to you, but also ones that you’ve taken on your device and have sent to other people. Once they’ve installed Clean Master, users can access the area where Snapchat images are stored to manually clear them through either the “Privacy” or “History” functions. It is simple, easy to use and best of all it is free.

Clean Master is available as a free download on Google Play for smartphones and tablets running Android 2.3 or higher.

Dan joins the BGR team as the Android Editor, covering all things relating to Google’s premiere operating system. His work has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business and Yahoo News, among other publications. When he isn’t testing the latest devices or apps, he can be found enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City.