WOW #3- Snapchat abandons users for money

Overview

If you've been on snapchat or any form of social media this week, you might have seen the outrageous reactions to the new snapchat update. In the past, snapchat users would have all of their friends and chats listed on the left side of the applications, and their snapchat stories seperate, on the right side of the app. This general structure has outlived many of snapchat's updates, and had been an integral part in how users lived their everyday life.

That's when everything changed.

Now, stories appear on the left side, with the chats. Meaning, you see the stories of the people that you chat with the most, but not necessarily people that you may want to see, but don't talk to. Due to this new system, the number of views you can get on your snapchat stories is severely decreased. This disrupts all kinds of unspoken social protocol! Now when that boy you like won't text you back, you can't just put up a cute selfie on your snapchat story to remind him what he's missing. He can't be reminded if he can't see it!

On top of all of the "drama" this creates, it's not very intuitive, leaving users unable to understand how to use the app.

For this and many more reasons, snapchat users are furious. Here are a few of my personal favorite reactions:

All of this may leave you thinking "What the hell were they thinking?" And that's when I stumbled upon this article:

Target

It became clear that the target of this redesign, was to please the advertisers giving them money. Now the entire right side of the site (that used to be dedicated to stories) is used for news sites.

Objective

To make snapchat less user friendly, and more easy for advertisers to reach their consumers.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Snapchat has clearly done what they've set out to do: make it easier for advertisers to reach their target consumers.

Weaknesses

Users are furious, and we don't see them letting up anytime soon.