Snapchat purges Windows Phone of all third-party apps

If you've got a Lumia handset and have suddenly lost the ability to send self-destructing messages and photos to your friends, don't panic, there's nothing wrong with your phone.However, there was potentially something wrong with the app that you were likely using in order to speak to friends on Snapchat.

If you've got a Lumia handset and have suddenly lost the ability to send self-destructing messages and photos to your friends, don't panic, there's nothing wrong with your phone.

However, there was potentially something wrong with the app that you were likely using in order to speak to friends on Snapchat.

The ephemeral messaging app has never been officially available on Microsoft's smartphone platform. As a result, developers created unofficial apps that connected Windows Phone users with Snapchat's platform, the most popular of which was 6snap.

Unfortunately, some of these third-party apps were the reason why many users found their login details and a host of what were meant to be disappearing images and text messages reappear on the internet. Following the hack, Snapchat warned that it was going to clamp down on unofficial apps and now, according to windowscentral.com, it has started cleaning house.

Rudy Huyn, the developer behind 6snap, tweeted over the weekend to confirm that his app has been pulled from the Windows Phone store and that existing users' accounts had been blocked. He also pledged to work with both Microsoft and Snapchat to try to find a solution.