What timing! Snapchat is building a way for people to use their Snapchat account to connect with third-party apps. The idea, in theory, would let Snapchat users grant outside companies access to their Snapchat data to help personalize other services.
If that’s the case — and it looks like it is, based on these screenshots Mashable published on Tuesday — it would mean that Snap is building out the same kind of API that just got Facebook into a whole mess of trouble.
You can’t make these things up.
Mashable saw a beta version of Snapchat with a new section called “Connected Apps,” with text that reads, “These apps are connected to your Snapchat account. Choose an app to control what it has access to.”
Snapchat currently has an advertising API so people can buy ads through third-party dashboards, but it doesn’t let people use their Snapchat account on other apps, or help people connect with their Snapchat friends on other platforms...