Posted inNews

Sorry, Kids. The Old Snapchat is Not Coming Back

The redesign is here to stay

by ITP Live
Sorry, Kids. The Old Snapchat is Not Coming Back

More of this topic

We’ve known for a while that Snapchatters are not happy with the recent redesign.

Users have been asking for Snap Inc. to roll back the new design and replace it with the “old” Snapchat.

The feelings of frustration are widespread, and over a million Snap fans around the world have signed a petition asking Snapchat to scrap the update. Snap fans claim they find the new design cumbersome and that Stories from publishers (and celebrity influencers) are prioritized over user-generated content. 

“I hated it when it rolled onto me about a month back,” one user commented on Reddit. “It still sucks, it’s like they don’t want me to watch stories from my friends or people I follow and instead want to push their brainless featured stories despite me continually telling the app I’m not interested. I get it, from a money making viewpoint, but it doesn’t sit well with me…” 

Many prefer the “basic” format of the past, and some have resorted to downloading a VPN to “trick” Snapchat into thinking they’re located in a country where the redesign has yet to be implemented. (Spoiler alert: this technique probably won’t work any more, as the update has now been globally rolled out.)

Last week a fake post was circulating on Twitter, claiming if it had 50,000 retweets Snapchat would bring back the old design.

It quickly became one of the most reposted tweets of all time on Twitter.

But experts claim that the old Snapchat is unlikely to come back.

“There is less than a zero [percent] chance,” Taylor Lorenz, a reporter for Daily Beast, said in an interview with Cheddar.”It’s not happening, this has been in the works for months. It’s already rolled out globally. There’s no going back.”

As Snapchat starts prioritizing content from publishers, Lorenz believe that Snapchat may become a destination for individuals looking to keep up with current affairs. But she is unsure if this strategy will “pay off”.

“They’re hoping to have 10 thousand tiles on the right hand side, so that’s a big opportunity to sell ad inventory,” she said. “But I think they’re going to need to come up with more unique products, and I think they’re going to have a really hard time competing with Facebook and Instagram who have so much data.”

Research has shown a dramatic spike in Snap users’ claiming their intent to switch from the platform to Instagram Stories, and Facebook is working hard to ensure users’ time spent on the social network is “time well spent.”

It will be interesting to see what’s in store for Snapchat’s future…

What are your thoughts on Snapchat’s new redesign? Do you like it or hate it? Let us know in the comments below.