Snapchat just rolled out a new update and for the most part, it hasn’t gone down too well with users. Many have been quick to condemn it and do what the internet does best, make memes about it. But is it really that bad? It’s clear that Snapchat had a plan going into this and had a certain target in mind too. So, let’s take a look at what exactly has rattled people about it.
Update Details
Major changes came to Snapchat, which were aimed at organising your relationships and had a touch of personalisation to them as well. The idea was to create a balance between professional creators getting the spotlight, and being able to see what your friends are up to. This, they claim, has been interesting. However, it has taken away from what being able to send videos and photos to your friends felt like. In what seems to be a move towards more professional and advertiser-friendly updates, they decided to change the layout. It’s pretty basic when you think about it, friends to the left side and stories from paid sponsors and other publishers on the right. They’ve also added a new dynamic friends page that displays friends based on how you communicate with them. This new algorithm makes it so you can find your crew easily as compared to having to scroll through endless stories. And finally the ‘Discover’ page is a section for stories from the community and all subscriptions live at the top.
Focus Of The Update
It’s clear when you look at it, Snapchat has directed this move to help attract more publishers, advertisers and professional content creators. It’s aimed to help make them making a revenue by pulling businesses towards the platform just like other competitors.
Negatives Of The Update
At first glance, the most basic problem and negative would be the change in the whole layout. It left many users confused and frustrated. A lot of people also thought that the company didn’t care about the casual user’s experience and was simply looking at profits and appealing to businesses. To an extent, we’d agree to that but to say they ignored the casual user’s experience would be a overstep.
Positives Of The Update
Sure, huge changes without warning can be shocking and frustrating at first. But, once you get past that, Snapchat has just simplified lives. The segregation of community posts, friends circle and subscriptions is actually a good thing. It allows us to pick and choose what we want to watch and see. It also helps us check what the community is up to. For businesses, it allows them to reach their a wider audience than before because their content can actually appear in a dedicated section. This is sure to pull many advertisers and generate more revenue for the company. Hey, more money means more updates and that’s something we can live with.
The Verdict
After the starting shock of having seen your favourite app change so drastically gets over, people will come to see the benefits. Sure businesses will get a boost, but why is that a bad thing? Snapchat hasn’t tried to pull a fast one its users and people need to just get used to it. In time, we’re sure the whole hoo-ha will die down and people will welcome the change. Something they could have done though is, give a heads up to users to allow them to ease into it. It’s okay to get pissed at change, but the sooner you accept it, the quicker you get over it. Also, can we just say how thrilled we are that we don’t have to scroll through literally everyone just to find the people we actually want? If that’s not a blessing, well then, not sure what is.
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