We already knew Rand Paul was a fan of long form. Now he's taking a stab at a more phantasmal form of communication — Snapchat.
The Republican U.S. Senator from Kentucky signed up for the popular yet somewhat controversial photo-sharing app, he announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday. Paul will send the first snap from his account, under the username "senatorrandpaul," on Wednesday evening.
See also: Instagram vs. Snapchat: How the Photo-Sharing Apps Stack Up
Paul's first official post came a bit earlier, though. Upon adding him on Wednesday morning, we were able to view a six-second Snapchat story that was pushed out to his followers.
"Hey guys, thanks for following me on Snapchat. Look forward to seeing you soon," Paul says in the video.
In addition to compiling Snapchat stories in a 24-hour feed, the service allows users to send self-destructing pictures or short videos to one or more followers. The snaps appear on the recipients screen for between one and 10 seconds; the sender selects the length of the message before sending.
As you can see in the screenshot below, Paul eschewed Snapchat's creative doodling function for some straightforward textual annotation:

This isn't the first time Paul's communication methods have taken the spotlight. Last March, someone from Paul's staff used his Twitter account to live-tweet the senator's 13-hour filibuster on drones.
In addition, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called Paul out in October for plagiarizing Wikipedia articles in his speeches.
Paul may be the highest-profile politician to join Snapchat to date, but many have already joked that it would have been a perfect fit for Anthony Weiner, whose political career unraveled in the wake of a sexting scandal.
As Snapchat rose to fame, it gained a reputation as a safer platform for sharing racy photos. In reality, Snapchat has a massive user base, who use it in a variety of ways; the company claims 400 million snaps have been sent. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel recently even spurned a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook.
If Paul is any indicator, more Washington, D.C., politicians may attempt to leverage Snapchat's popularity. At the same time, Snapchat is trying to make inroads in the political sphere. The company recently hired lobbying firm Heather Podesta + Partners.
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Image: Mashable composite; Flickr, Gage Skidmore
BONUS: The Quick and Dirty History of Sexting
If we really want to examine the history of sexting, we need to go back. Way back.
Some of the first known examples of erotic imagery can be traced back to uncovered Paleolithic cave paintings, depicting various sexual acts by humans and animals.
Fast forward to the mid-12th century and the carrier pigeon. It isn't difficult to imagine two young lovebirds sending dirty calligraphic prose letters back and forth with the help of trusty fowl. One likely setback: the six month wait time between responses.
James Joyce is one famous early adapter to the longform sext. His infamous love letters to his wife, Nora, strike many common chords with the sexts of today.
IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, MODRA
The invention of Polaroids and instant film really helped the sexter's cause, saving a huge amount of time and eliminating the disapproving looks from photo developers. Edwin Land invented the earliest commercially available instant camera in 1947.
The pocket calculator became widely available in 1970, popularizing the not-so-publicly damaging sext, "80085" -- used mostly among school children...and immature online journalists.
Though available to the public as early as 1958, pagers became widely popular throughout the 80s and 90s. Not surprisingly, they were used for more than just emergencies. Some eager companions would send each other brief numerical sexts throughout the day.
Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old engineer, Neil Papworth, has the honor of sending the first-ever text message. He used his computer to send the message "Merry Christmas" to the phone of a colleague.
Shortly after came the second-ever text message: "So, what are you wearing?" Just kidding. Maybe.
The first commercially available camera phone was the Sharp J-SH04 in 2000, but MMS wouldn't be invented for another two years.
In 2002, the ability to send grainy, low resolution photos through your cellular network became available. It was a giant leap forward in the sexting community.
It is generally believed that a Globe and Mail article, "Textual Gratification," contains the first ever use of the word "sext."
You can read the article here.
IMAGE: GLOBE AND MAIL
In 2007, 32 Victorian teens were charged with child pornography offenses after authorities uncovered a sexting ring in their school.
IMAGE: GOOGLE MAPS
A 2008 report by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy stated that 20% of all teenagers had sent or posted nude or semi-nude photos of themselves. This report put sexting on parents' radars, and likely led to thousands of slideshow assemblies.
IMAGE: THENATIONALCAMPAIGN.COM
In a 2009 story broken by the National Enquirer, it was revealed that golf icon Tiger Woods had been having several extramarital affairs. Some of the women cited steamy texts and photos as evidence of Woods' infidelity.
Football star Brett Favre was quick to follow Tiger Woods' path, when it was revealed that he'd been sending lewd text messages and photographs to then-New York Jets gameday hostess Jenn Sterger.
In the summer of 2011, then-congressman Anthony Weiner tweeted a link to a sexual photo of himself to a Seattle college student. The resulting political and media firestorm led to Weiner's resignation.
Popular app Snapchat, created by two Stanford students, was launched in the App Store in September 2011. The app allows for pictures to be sent to friends for a specified amount of time before being deleted.
IMAGE: SNAPCHAT
Online gossip site TheDirty released more photographs sent by current NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner during a relationship in 2012. As of the time of this post, Weiner has chosen to remain in the mayoral race.