Snapchat is getting so popular, even your parents are on it

Okay, so maybe not your parents. They aren't tech-savy enough to tune their digital radio to anything other than Radio 4. But a new report from the web analysts at ComScore suggests that Snapchat is now being used by more over 35s than ever before - and the number of old time snappers is set to grow. 

Apparently 14 per cent of US smartphone owners aged over 35 now use Snapchat, up from just two per cent back in 2013. 

There's an even bigger uptake of users from the "older millennial" bracket of 25 to 34-year-olds, growing from a user base of just five per cent of the demographic in 2013 to 38 per cent in 2016. 

Snapchat's largest userbase in the US continues to be those pesky, app-loving millennials aged between 18 and 25. Great for Snapchat's street cred, but if the image sharing app is going start competing with the likes of Facebook and Google for advertising revenue, it needs to start engaging with demographics that actually have - you know - money? 

The challenge for Snapchat will be growing this new, older, money rich user base without putting off its main youthful snappers, attracted to the app in the first place as it was somewhere they could fleetingly share anything they wanted without older eyes being able to find it.

No one wants their mum browsing through their boozy, swear-filled "My Story" early on a Saturday morning ("Gavin - what did you do last night? Did you make it home? Call me now. lol Mum x"), but as Snapchat introduces more features like news stories and region-based content, moving into Twitter's instant news territory, that percentage of older uses will only grow.

Good news for Snapchat's advertising plans, bad news if the app was the final social platform you could escape your parents on.