After a much-criticized redesign last year, Snapchat is reportedly testing a redesign that once again places Stories from friends next to professional publishers. When it announced the changes last year, Snapchat’s big thing was “separating the social from the media,” separate feeds for friend content and publishers on Discover. Prior to that, Snapchat placed the ephemeral 24-hour Stories from friends in Discover, and kept messaging in a separate feed.
A spokesperson told Recode, “We are always listening to our community and will continue to test updates that we hope will give Snapchatters the best possible experience on our platform.” And that community has been very vocal. High-profile celebrity users have said that they don’t use the app much anymore, user complaints about the redesigned feed have not subsided as most post-rejigger complaining does, and publishers themselves are having trouble understanding what Snap is up to.
The redesign — or un-design — could make it easier to find your friends’ Stories, and it might encourage users to check out Discover publishers. While not a done deal, the tweaks could also prove a useful lesson: that when it comes to social media, separating public and private is more important than separating the personal and impersonal.
