Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown launched Snapchat in Los Angeles, California, United States, creating a messaging platform where photos and videos disappear after viewing. This ephemeral approach contrasted with permanent social media archives, encouraging spontaneous, less curated sharing among close contacts. Snapchat's augmented reality filters and Stories feature, compiling sequential ephemeral content, influenced broader social media design while appealing particularly to younger users seeking alternatives to permanent digital footprints.

Snapchat's ephemerality influenced contemporary poetry's interest in impermanence and disappearing texts as aesthetic and philosophical principles. Poets explored how temporary communication affects intimacy, honesty, and the pressure of permanent documentation, using vanishing message metaphors for memory's fragility. The platform's filters also inspired poems about mediated self-perception and the playful transformation of identity, while raising questions about whether ephemerality enables authenticity or merely creates different performance pressures.