Users lash out at Snapchat over radical redesign

Snapchat is facing a wave of outraged users demanding its recently updated app make like one of its messages and disappear.

The backlash, as swift as it was harsh, met the rollout of a radical redesign that completely changes the way the popular social media app works.

The redesigned app, which was meant to simplify and streamline the Snapchat experience, appears to have had the opposite effect for many users.

Features that many used on a daily basis are now in different parts of the app, causing confusion among its loyal users.

Snapchat’s user interface is now effectively split in two. In one window, conversations with your friends as well as their personal stories. In the other, stories of the brands and outlets that create content for Snapchat.

Users have complained that it is now difficult to follow their best friends’ stories — and have said the update had put their all-important Snap Streaks in danger due to confusion about how to send and view messages.

A petition on Change.org calling for Snapchat to revert its app to the way it was before the update has garnered nearly 850,000 signatures, with signers calling the update “unnecessary,” “horrible” and “some bulls–t.”

Snapchat’s App Store ratings have taken a hit as well. The latest version of the app is rated at 1.9 stars out of 5.

In the past month, 1-star ratings have made up 33.3 percent of the social network’s ratings, according to App Store intelligence company Apptopia. In its lifetime, 1-star ratings have only made up 12.6 percent of the total.

The research firm eMarketer has projected Snapchat to add 1.9 million users under the age of 24 this year. It remains to be seen if the blowback to the update will change that number.