This was discovered by connecting the iOS device to the computer and using a file browsing computer program where it was discovered that Snapchat actually kept copies of videos that were supposed to be deleted. At the moment this appears to be related to videos only as the video feature was introduced on the 14th of December. It seems that this problem also affects Facebook’s Poke app where the videos are actually found to be stored on folders called “tmp” for Snapchat, and “mediacard” for the Poke app.
It is unclear if the Android version is affected similarly, and while Facebook has yet to comment on the issue, Snapchat’s founder Evan Spiegel said that those who enjoy the service of Snapchat probably would not go to such lengths to recover deleted videos. For those who use Snapchat and Poke to send harmless videos to friends or family, we suspect that this might not be a huge deal, but for those who use it for, well, adult purposes, this is definitely something worth keeping in mind.