Many times you would have bumped into a stranger at a coffee shop or during a journey, and a wonderful conversation would have ensued, a serendipitous encounter. Now what if you can randomly bump into someone online and have a  serendipitous conversation with them. SnapSwap, the Android based photo sharing and messaging app lets you do just that.

SnapSwap lets you to get introduced to random strangers around the world just by sending them a picture. You can then start one on one conversations with them.

You can remain completely anonymous and only share your personal information with them if you feel like, thereby giving you the comfort of privacy.

How SnapSwap Works?

Once you start the app you have an option to take and upload a picture. Once the picture is uploaded,  it randomly goes to another SnapSwap user and you receive one from a random user too. Hence, every time you send a picture, you are thereby introduced to 2 new people, the person who has received your picture, and the person from whom you have got the picture.

As the pictures are always geotagged , you will know from which part of the world the image is being sent from.

Once you accept the picture, the introduction is made and you can start conversation with the person through the built-in messaging feature. You can send and receive upto 140 characters.

If you like a picture you can give them a thumbs up and if you do not like a picture you can give it a thumbs down. All likes and dislikes on your pictures can be viewed in your user profile section.

The interesting bit is that the messaging follows a one way traffic rule i.e once you send a message, the person at the other end has to respond. You will not be able to send another message until the other person responds, and if there is no conversation during the following 24 hours, the chat automatically expires.

To ensure that a user does not re-send images, the app will not allow users to send pictures that have been previously clicked.

To start using the app you are not required to follow any kind of user registration or sharing of user details.

Sometimes, as in the case of any sharing app, there is a chance of an inappropriate message or images being shared. To solve this problem, the app lets you flag a user if you receive a picture that you think is inappropriate from them. If a user gets 3 flags, they will be suspended from the system and will never be able to send a picture from that device again.

Treetins, is another newly launched social network that wants to make it easier for strangers to meet and get to know each other.

SnapSwap is currently in Beta stage. Download and checkout the app from here and leave your comments below.