This can’t be good. According to recent data, over 80 percent of App Store reviews of Snapchat’s recent redesign are negative. And many users want the old version back.
Snapchat redesigned its app recently, and we are just now getting the first glimpses of what users think of it. Users in three countries where the redesign is available – U.K., Australia, and Canada – have weighed in on the changes to the app and are giving it really bad reviews. In fact, 83 percent of the total 1,941 App Store review for the update have one or two stars. The data, provided by mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower also shows that only 17 percent of the reviews (391 in total) contain five stars.
The reviews send a very specific message. “Please fix,” coupled with the words “new update,” and “Stories.” Many users are so dissatisfied, that they’ve been asking to get their old version of Snapchat back, with Snapchat reminding them that “it’s not possible to revert to a previous version.” This issue couldn’t come at a worse time for Snap Inc., – Snapchat’s user growth is almost stagnant, at 7 percent, and the number of users posting Stories didn’t rise at all in Q3 2017. Again, Snap’s earnings fell well below expectations, leading to a loss of $443 million in the same quarter.
The above, combined with the rise of Instagram’s Stories, paints a bleak picture. Whatever the case, it’s clear that Snapchat has a problem. It can’t seem to understand what its users want. It saw that they were sending more messages to each other, so it started mixing Stories with messages. Stories from people who don’t follow them back have moved to Discover. But it’s obvious that people want their Stories all in one place… as Stories.
People are obviously confused, but is it just the reaction to something new? Will they get used to it? On one hand, Snapchat thinks that this is the case. Its response has been that “Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.” But, will they “settle in?”
My suggestion: Snapchat, give your users what they WANT!
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