The ailing Snapchat is taking a big step today: a completely new design of the app with which the service should be able to compete with Instagram and Facebook again. This is Snapchat’s biggest update yet.
Snapchat 2.0 separates friends from media
During the release of the quarterly results a few weeks ago, Snapchat already announced it: the app would be given a thorough redesign, in the hope of attracting more people and making current users more active. The result is a new design that is not only clearer, but also entails a lot of radical changes. These are the four most important.
1. A dynamic friends list for chat and Stories
Snapchat has always been a mix of your friends’ videos and those of professional parties. This will change with the new Snapchat. From now on, Snapchat will open a dynamic friends page, which contains both chat messages and Stories. Your best friends’ messages are automatically placed at the top of the list, as you’ll likely want to open them first.
2. A clear division between friends and brands
Snapchat’s new design is designed with a clear vision: separating your friends from the brands you follow in the app. This works as follows: the camera is still processed in the ‘middle’ of the app. Then swipe left to talk to your friends, swipe right to enter a search query and see what professional parties and brands are talking about.
3. A clear design, also for newcomers
With the new design, Snapchat wants to make the app clearer for outsiders. The main reason that things are not going well with Snapchat is that there are hardly any new users. By taking this step, Snapchat hopes to encourage more conversations between people, and that as a result, other people who didn’t use Snapchat before will give the app a chance.
4. Negative consequences for publishers
What is mostly good news for users will initially mean bad news for publishers. Now their Stories are still shown between the stories of your friends, but that is over from the new design. Users will have to deliberately navigate to the ‘media page’ to view these photos and videos. Snapchat has already promised to give media new tools to make it stand out better, but how this will work is as yet unclear.
When will the Snapchat update appear?
The biggest update Snapchat has ever had appears today to a small group of users. After that, it will be rolled out to all Snapchat users on iOS and Android over the course of the week. So keep an eye on the App Store, or follow iPhoned on Twitter to be the first to know when the update is ready. The big question now is whether these changes are enough to get the app out of the doldrums. It was clear that something had to be done, it remains to be seen whether these measures will have the effect that Snap Inc. hopes for.
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