Home Opinion New Year, New Snapchat

New Year, New Snapchat

by Kennedy Henson

By now, most Snapchat users’ apps have updated to the new format, and users are not liking it based on reviews written after the release of the update. For starters, the print size is much smaller when browsing through the chat section, making it much more difficult to see when you have an unopened Snapchat or message than the previous format. Instead of the large box or arrow appearing next to the name of the recipient or sender, the Bitmoji of said person appears, with the box or arrow showing up under the name much smaller than before. Streak and friend emojis are also much smaller and appear next to the rest of the information instead of on the very right side of the screen.

There is no longer a story section, which is very confusing and annoying for regular users, since that has been a part of the format since Snapchat was originally released. Stories are now located in the chat section of the app, mixed in with all of the users’ personal chats. This part of the update also rearranges the order in which the most recent chats appear. Some users were worried they would miss a friend’s story if they haven’t chatted with them recently. This is not true: the stories appear near the top of the chat section even if there is no recent conversation between the two users. However. there is a problem with this feature as well. Not all stories appear directly at the top of the chat section. There is the possibility of a “View More Stories” button, which will drop down to the story within the chat list. This reason for this is unknown, though. It also puts the most recent chats at the bottom of all the stories, which is inconvenient if the user is only trying to open new chats and messages.

The discover section serves almost no purpose if you don’t care about those specific stories. It shows public and popular stories and websites including Buzzfeed, People, Food Network, and “official stories from Manny Mua, Trevor Moran, Kehlani and Patrick Starr. For users like me, this is a pointless feature. I only want to see the stories of people I know personally and are on my friends list. This feature is different from other social media platforms, where users “like” or “follow” celebrities and informational posts.

Freshman Elementary Education major Caitlyn McCarthy said she does not like the update “because of the way they have the stories now. It’s hard to see when your friends have a story and the story page itself is just weird.”

Junior Biology major Ethan Childers dislikes the update because “there are a lot of unnecessary features added and several taken away that I liked. I really dislike that after I view someone’s story, their name stays within my recent chats instead of disappearing.”

There are a couple aspects of the new format that are not completely terrible. One is the addition of new text formats on photos. When users’ take a photo on the photo screen, tapping the “T” icon should bring up the keyboard as well as a box with a multitude of new text formatting options. These options include “Glow,” “Rainbow,” “Gradient” and “Old English.” The other is the new options for Bitmoji, an animated version of the user, which include new hairstyles, outfits, and facial features.


Image credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

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