Snapchat Responds To Change.Org Petition Complaining About the App's Redesign

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Snapchat has posted an official response to users who signed a petition on Change.org asking the company to reverse its controversial update, which people say makes the app more difficult to use. In the response, Snapchat promises to make a few more changes to the Friends and Discover section in order to address user complaints. These changes were announced yesterday, along with GIF stickers from Giphy. The backlash against Snapchat has been growing in the months since the company rolled out a major revamp, which aimed to make the social app more accessible to a mainstream audience. Snapchat users have left the app bad reviews, complained on social media, turned to rival Instagram, and they signed a Change.org petition entitled, "Remove the new Snapchat update."

Last night, Snapchat posted an official response to the petition, reiterating its stance but also promising a few tweaks that may help to address users' concerns. Specifically, the company said that "beginning soon on iOS and with Android in the coming weeks" it will introduce tabs in the Friends section and in Discover, which it says will make it easier for users to find the Stories they want. This update will let users sort things like Stories, Group Chats, and Subscriptions. Whether these tabs will placate users who just want the old Snapchat back remains to be seen.

I'm so old

[110010001000]

I have no idea what SnapChat is. Is it like Instagram?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Instagram with more dick-pics and images with delete themselves after being viewed.

Re:I'm so old

[enjar]

I think it's an "app" the young people use to send naked pictures to each other with the naive belief that they magically disappear from the other end, and that they can disguise themselves with cat noses. I believe it used to pride itself on being incomprehensible to old people. Somehow it has a valuation in the tens of billions despite losing $500M a year.

No, I don't get it, either

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

I think it's an "app" the young people use to send naked pictures to each other with the naive belief that they magically disappear from the other end,

Old fart here. I think people underestimate security through obscurity.

Security through obscurity won't save you from a determined attacker like the NSA. But, security through obscurity will save you from the majority fo attackers who are looking for an easy target.

My house is not especially secure. Apart from the lack of jewels my house would be an extremely

Re:

[tlhIngan]

I think it's an "app" the young people use to send naked pictures to each other with the naive belief that they magically disappear from the other end,

Old fart here. I think people underestimate security through obscurity.

Security through obscurity won't save you from a determined attacker like the NSA. But, security through obscurity will save you from the majority fo attackers who are looking for an easy target.

Except the workaround is so easy, anyone can do it.

As in, if you wanted to preserve the image,

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Except the workaround is so easy, anyone can do it. As in, if you wanted to preserve the image, you took a screenshot. That's it.

Yes, so?

If it's archived in perpetuity you can go back and access it at any time and the npost it to wherever you want. If it's no, you have to decide to do it there and then or it's gone. If you're not a complete sociopath who archives literally everything just in case (most people aren't), then most stuff will have gone.

What you're doing is ignoring the 90% solution.

Now, on And

Re:

[darkain]

It started out as a "security" based messaging application, where you could send images peer-to-peer with others, and they'd auto-delete themselves after being viewed, so government couldn't request to see user content (because it was never stored)

And WALP, nobody gave two shits about security, so they turned it into a hipster trendy company instead focusing on funny little video loops people could publish. And thus, success was found!

Re:

[110010001000]

I thought the looping video app was Vine.

they should ask for their money back

[enjar]

When life gives you lemons, ask to see life's manager!

Re:

[FatdogHaiku]

When life gives you lemons, ask to see life's manager!

So the "Give Life a paper cut and squeeze lemon juice in it" approach may have been sub-optimal?

Re:

[antdude]

No! You burn its house down! See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com] from Portal 2. :P

Fake boycots never work

[Anonymous Coward]

If the change is so bad, people should use another server. Making a petition demanding it be fixed just tells Snapchat that people arne't willing to leave.

Online petitions are useless

[Chas]

Sorry, they're worth less than the effort it takes to simply ignore them (which is none at all).

And, even if they respond, it's simply too easy to issue a flowery "Fuck you. No."

And that's all "We're working on things to address your complaints." really is.

Re:Online petitions are useless

[alvinrod]

The whole thing just seems likes like a sleazy way to collect contact information and other personal information about what kinds of petitions people are signing. Even if online petitions weren't useless as you suggest, I'd stay the hell away from any site that isn't dedicated to a single position and intent on dissolving itself after some point in the near future.

A quick Google search indicated that they (Change.org) have 300 employees, which at a very conservative estimate means $15,000,000 in worker salaries, never mind all of the other expenses. They are absolutely selling user data in order to pay the bills.

Get thee to github

[Drunkulus]

Wouldn't it be easier to write a replacement dick-pic sharing app than go to all this trouble of creating a poll?

Re:

[Voyager529]

Wouldn't it be easier to write a replacement dick-pic sharing app than go to all this trouble of creating a poll?

tl;dr: no.

Snapchat usage instructions:
1. install app.
2. create account, or just choose the 'sign in with facebook' option and grant permissions.
3. add other users by scanning their QR code, or let it scrape your contacts and auto-add.
4. exchange images of genitals.
5. create petition when a bad UI somehow manages to get even worse by going to a website expressly created for the purpose.

OpenSnap usage instructions:
1. install app. There may be options here, including ones that retain images even when they're n

Reminds me of Digg

[hazem]

This situation reminds me of Digg. If you don't recognize that name it's there was a mass migration (many to Reddit) off the platform after they made very unpopular changes back in 2010.

If your money comes from having a network of "users" who you can sell ads for and sell information about, then you probably want to work to grow that network, not diminish it. This is especially the case when there are competitors who can easily snap up your alienated users.

Re:

[jarkus4]

The other side of this coin is that if your product doesn't change it will stagnate and slowly die. Any major change causes negative reaction from current users, but lack of such change may mean limiting chances to get new users (I don't say this is necessarily a case here as I haven't even seen this app).

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I'm old too

[Tighe_L]

I have tried several times to figure out how to use the snapchat app, and this was before the change that people are upset about. I never did figure out how to use it and what it's used for.