Social Media Downfall? Snapchat's Redesign Faces Backlash, Facebook Too Sees Drop in Number of Young Users

More than 800,000 people have even signed an online petition asking the application to revert the update to its original design.

Representational Image (Photo credits: Facebook/Automaxx Red Deer and Snapchat logo)

Popular photo messaging application introduced a new redesign last week. With every messaging application today getting in more updates almost every month, Snapchat decided to redesign too. Usually, Snapchat introduced more photo filters, but the latest update separated media content from the user's friends along with many other interface changes. But users are not at all impressed with these new introductions. The application has faced tremendous backlash, saying that the new interface is difficult to navigate. More than 800,000 people have even signed an online petition asking the application to revert the update to its original design.

In the previous version all the photo stories from a user's friends, celebrities and pages they followed all on one page. In the latest update, it separated the page for friends. Also these stories which disappeared within 24 hours, now appear in the messaging section of the app. Reacting to the backlash a spokesperson from the application told to CNN, "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." Some users who complained against the app also said the update happened automatically and also deleted some of their archived messages.

The loss of one is gain of another and photo-sharing application Instagram seems to be winning here. As another report also says that the number of users on social media website Facebook has reduced considerably. A global researching firm eMarketer informed that Facebook does have monthly new users but those are of a higher age group. In 2018, the number of US Facebook users ages 11 and younger will decline by 9.3 percent. Additionally, the number of users ages 12 to 17 and 18 to 24 will decrease by 5.6 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively. The report also stated, "Facebook will lose two million users ages 24 and younger this year." So a lot of users are not even impressed with Facebook it seems. Well, it is about time which social platforms fares better over the other in time of grave competition. Now it will be a thing to see if Snapchat pulls back its old interface and meanwhile if Facebook comes up with any new functions to retain its younger audience.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 14, 2018 03:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).

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