Photo credit: Sydne Vigille
Snapchat is a popular social outlet that allows people to create stories with pictures and videos to share with their friends for up to 24 hours. However, the app’s most recent update includes new that people are not about.
The new update includes a different layout, improved “Bitmojis”, more fonts and a wider variety of popular stories.
The annoying part about the update is a new feature that combines user’s stories and private chats. This feature was once separated, making it easier for users to distinguish the two.
Rhianna Long, a computer information systems student said, “I feel that the Snapchat update is horrible and I don’t like how we have to go to the private chat to view people’s stories.”
Stories are also no longer in the order they’re posted, which can make keeping up with the order of friend’s events difficult.
Many users feel that the updates make the app confusing and changes the dynamic of the app.
“The update has made me use Snapchat less and it has made the use of the app complicated.” Long continued.
Snapchat users also took notice of a tremendous decline the views their story receives. Jordan Smith, a physical therapy student said, “I used to get a lot of views on my story and now I’m not even getting half the views which really upsets me.”
Millions of people took their complaints to Twitter, claiming that the update pushes them to use the app less and even saying that they hate the update.
People are questioning why Snapchat updated their features so drastically and changed the entire layout of the app.
Senior systems analyst and former Rattler, Natika Christopher said, “Most often it’s [app updates] based on user feedback. Other times as environments change, apps need to update in order to work properly in these environments.”
Consistently updating an app allows users to see the app’s competition and sways them to keep the app because its constantly improving.
App updates are also a product of analytics which is a process used to measure how many downloads the app is receiving, how active people are on the app, how users function on the app and much more.
“You have to understand what your customer wants. Research is key to any app. In the beginning you want to draw people to your app. Then once they are “in” you need to know what to do to keep them.” Christopher said.
Many Snapchat users wants the app to go back to its old format. When asked if asked if Snapchat should return to their previous layout Christopher said,“ I hope not. I’m not sure their process for updates but they may want to pilot with a percentage of customers before releasing to the masses.”
Snapchat C.E.O Evan Spiegel gave his own comments about the new update and why your favorite celebrity can now only be viewed in the popular section.
“For example, one of the complaints we got was 'Aww…I used to feel like this celebrity was my friend, and now they don't feel like my friend anymore.' And we're like, 'Exactly. They're not your friend.' So for us even some of the frustrations we're seeing really validate those changes."
Spiegel believes that all his users need in order to get used to the update is time and he doesn’t care about people wanting the old Snapchat back.