When it comes to updates, things go one of two ways. Either everything goes live and users sing your praises, or users hate the changes and will crucify you on social media (hello, automatic U2 album download).
So, when Snapchat released their newest update back in January, like anyone with the best intentions, they were probably hoping for praise. But what they got instead was a bucketload of grief.
Giving their thoughts on the upcoming changes, the company wrote:
“Until now, social media has mixed photos and videos from your friends with content from publishers and creators. While blurring these lines has been an interesting experiment, it has also produced strange side-effects (such as fake news) and made us feel like we have to perform for our friends, rather than just express ourselves.”
After the update was released in January, it became clear users were unhappy. In fact, the update has gone down like a lead balloon tied to a piece of concrete. Users aren’t keeping quiet about their displeasure either. There is currently a Change.org petition with 1,253,605 signatures at the time of writing, asking for Snapchat to rollback the design of the app.
So, to help you through the pain of the update, we’re going to take you through everything that’s changed.
Swipe left – Friends
Everything to do with friends is now in one place.
Where stories used to be viewed by swiping right – and more on that later – now friends, messages, and stories are all combined in one place. It’s a bit messy. If a friend posts a story, you’ll see a preview picture. Click on their profile pic to be taken to the story.
You can only see recent contacts’ stories now, so if you haven’t ever messaged someone, you’ll need to make contact with them before you can see their stories.
Swipe right – Discover
Another big change: swiping right no longer takes you to the stories page. Instead, you’ll see influencer content, paid-for ads, and friends’ stories appearing together in the new Discover feed.
There’s very little information about how Snapchat chooses what to show you, and a lot of people are annoyed about seeing lots of content they have no interest in at all.
If you want to see less from a particular source, long-press on a tile, and select “see less of this”.
Other changes
While the biggest changes are to the Friends and Discover tabs, there are a few other features worth mentioning.
- No easy way to mass clear conversations. You can’t clear all from settings anymore, and have to long-press on each conversation, then select settings > clear.
- No easy way to see the number of views on your posted stories, now you have to view these within your profile page.
- No more animated profile pictures. Instead, Snapchat replaced these with Bitmoji Deluxe.
- Our Story now makes you disclose your location by default.
Do we think Snapchat will change anything back? They did respond to the Change.org petition on the February 20, telling users:
“In the coming weeks, we are introducing tabs in Friends, and Discover, which will make it easier to find the Stories that you want, when you want them … You’ll be able to sort things like Stories, Group Chats, and Subscriptions, allowing you to further customize your own experience on the app.”
So, clearly, they know that something needs to change, and it’s hard to argue with a petition with over a million signatures and plummeting scores on app stores. But, will those people get what they want? We’ll see.
