BY KAITLYN LIM
With Snapchat’s newest update, or in their eyes “the layout improvement”, it has understandably been receiving multiple complaints regarding the abrupt change. Not only does it interfere with how users navigate the app, but it also affects who they view the story tab and how often.
It wasn’t out of the ordinary when Snapchat released an update for bug fixes and such, so when Snapchat users opened up their app to see the distinct change they were left frustrated and confused. The users were used to having separate tabs for each of the features such as private messages and public stories, but this is no longer the same. Snapchat has incorporated both the public stories and individuals together in one tab which, again, interferes with who is on the top of the users lists. The update does not take into consideration who they talk to most often or snap back to.
Although the complaints are on an all time high, Snapchat believes users will eventually learn to like the new layout, or get used to, and refuse to change it back to the “old Snapchat”. It is a hard decision to make on Snapchat’s part because it surely will cause a loss of consumers but smartly enough, many do not want to lose their “streaks” with their friends; another feature Snapchat has which helps them in times like these. So, because of the fear of losing streaks, people will continue to use the app despite their disliking towards it which gives Snapchat the OK to stick to the unusual design.
As someone that uses Snapchat on a daily basis, I first took it upon myself to find any alternative to get Snapchat to revert back to the original design but it was unfortunately too difficult, leading me to accept the update much like many others. Snapchat stated that they “hope to make it easier to stay in touch with your friends”, but it seems to be the complete opposite. One prominent change is the fact that most of the stories and private snaps are on the same tab, becoming messy and disorganized to view. Once more, Snapchat has made it clear that they will not change it back and they hope that users will take the time to evaluate the update and come to the conclusion that it is not as bad as it seems.
