The image messaging and multimedia mobile app Snapchat, first released in September of 2011, is synonymous with teens and young adults. Typically, well received and liked by its users, the app is now under criticism due to its most recent update. The social media app first started out as a way for users to send pictures or videos to each other that would disappear after about 10 seconds from the time it was opened. Eventually, updates brought about well received changes such as the addition of “stories” which allows users to post their pictures or videos to a “story” where it would remain for 24 hours. Since then, both Instagram and Facebook have adopted this feature. Another addition to Snapchat was the “Discovery” page which allows users to view content from advertisers or media outlets including updates from celebrities to news and sports updates. By 2016, Snapchat had gained a following of over 150 million daily users.

As with anything that is able to amass so many followers or users, there is some hate or criticism to be expected. This criticism was more than apparent with the most recent update that was released for the app. Prior to the update, all personal snapchats as messages were located on one page and were seperated from another page containing all stories and advertising content, with the most recent stories at the top of the page. However, the update has mixed the personal messages with stories which is the main point of concern. If someone updates their story, even if you never message them, their story post will bump any personal messages further down your feed with only the 2 or 3 most recent people messaged remaining on top. The page that had previously featured the story content now contains the “Discovery” or advertising content as well as any public stories from accounts partnered with Snapchat. This change sparked much confusion for users and the confusion quickly turned to hate.

In the past, the CEO of Snapchat has stated that the app could be confusing to use, and the update was meant to be a way to make the app more accessible to those who had this same way of thinking. The biggest complaint by many seems to be that the update was automatic and people didn’t have a choice in adopting the new layout. Users have become so annoyed with the update that some have started to move to other social media apps to post story content such as Instagram. The negativity toward this update is reflected in many ways, most notably the reviews on the App Store for Snapchat which now has a mere 1.9 out of 5 stars in addition to thousands of negative tweets about the updates. This isn’t the first time a social media site has faced criticism for a change in layout. Many were angered in 2008 when Facebook had forced all users to switch to the new layout which was previously optional.

The company has stated that there is currently no plans to change the layout back, but that may be soon to change. There is a petition on Change.org centered around removing the new update and has received well over 1 million signatures and is quickly growing.