Snapchat introduces redesign that will split its social posts from media content
Under the new plan, the app’s users will now see two separate feeds – one for all messages from friends and one for other publishers. Designers hope the changes will make it more easier to use and help broaden its appeal
Snap Inc – in which Chinese tech giant Tencent is reported to have a 12 per cent stake – has redesigned its popular social media app Snapchat in a bid to broaden its appeal.
The company said in a blog post last week that the app will now separate posts with friends from a feed of content from professional publishers and public figures. The app will appear as usual, but all friend content will now be on the left, while publisher content on the company’s “Discover” platform will be on the right.
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The redesign followed the company’s reported disappointing revenue figures. Chief executive Evan Spiegel promised to make the app more accessible to new users, and that the latest change could be summed up as separating “social” from “media.”
“While blurring the lines between professional content creators and your friends has been an interesting internet experiment, it has also produced some strange side-effects [like fake news] and made us feel like we have to perform for our friends rather than just express ourselves,” Spiegel said in a company blog post.
How big a role Tencent will play in Snap’s future is unclear. But the owner of the massive multipurpose online platform WeChat in China had said that the investment “enables Tencent to explore cooperation opportunities with the company on mobile games publishing and newsfeed as well as to share its financial returns from the growth of its businesses and monetisation in the future.”
It also referred to the potential for “newsfeed ads”, though games and a newsfeed have not been part of Snapchat thus far. The app was released in 2011, primarily as a phone app for millennials to share text messages and photos that would expire within a short period of time. Last month, the company reported that 178 million people use its service daily, falling short of an expected 180.5 million.