Two tests are in the making that could reshape Snapchat’s whole design in this critical year.
One of the tests is a redesign of the application for both Android and iOS that will provide a new home for the Snap Map and the company’s original video programming. The other is a test of breaking news headlines inside the app in order to incorporate timely news briefs into Snapchat as a complement to the existing magazine styled stories on the Discover page.
Snapchat has always been an application which had been limited to three screens, yet this new design splits them into five. Currently, Snap opens to the camera which a space for chats to the left and the Discover page to the right.
In the new design, the Snap Map will now be on the left of your chats. Discover will be renamed as “Community” and Snap’s slate of original series will be found to the right of community in a new tab that will inherit the “Discover” name.
Snapchat is getting a navigation bar which is extremely dramatic for Snap as the app had once prided itself in its obscure and unique design choices.
Users will now be able to see where they are within the app at a simple glance and move from screen to screen with a tap rather than a swipe. This is a strange move for Snapchat as it becomes an obvious move for them, according to The Verge.
“We’re exploring ways to streamline navigation across Snapchat, soliciting feedback from our community to inform future versions of our app,” a Snap spokeswoman said to the Verge.
“This test’s UI offers more space to innovate and increases the opportunity to engage with and discover even more of what Snapchat has to offer.”
This second approach is favoured by Snap as it will allow only whitelisted publishers onto the platform. In theory, this should elevate high-quality and mainstream news publishers in order to limit the amount of misinformation on the platform.
“We are in the very early stages of exploring how to evolve news offerings on Snapchat,” the company said. “We are working with a handful of partners and testing with a small percentage of Snapchatters in the U.S. We don’t have additional details to share at this time.”
This test of the new design comes three years after Snap’s last redesign, which was sent out with little to no testing in 2017. This caused 2% of active users to stop using Snapchat entirely which caused Snap to gradually walk back and remove some of the most hated changes. Snapchat has added uses for the past four straight quarters, and is now used by 218 million people a day.
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