The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2018
Snapchat's 2018 redesign angered 1.2 million users — and handed Instagram the opening
Snapchat merged friends and media into one feed. Users revolted, a Change.org petition hit 1.2M signatures, and Instagram Stories accelerated past it.
Snap Inc. · 2018-02
What happened
In early 2018, Snap Inc. rolled out a major redesign of Snapchat that merged the 'Friends' and 'Discover' feeds into a single, algorithmically sorted feed. The goal was to increase engagement with media content and make the app more accessible to older users. CEO Evan Spiegel described it as the company's biggest redesign ever.
The backlash was immediate and fierce. Longtime users, who valued Snapchat as a personal messaging app distinct from social media, felt that the redesign destroyed the app's core identity. A Change.org petition demanding the old version back gathered over 1.2 million signatures. Celebrities including Kylie Jenner publicly criticized the redesign, and Snap's stock dropped.
The timing was catastrophic. Instagram, which had copied Snapchat's Stories feature in 2016, was growing rapidly. The redesign confusion slowed Snapchat's user growth at the exact moment it needed to demonstrate momentum. Snap eventually partially reversed the redesign, but the damage was done: Instagram Stories had surpassed Snapchat in daily users, and Snap's growth trajectory was permanently altered.
Why it happened
- The redesign merged personal messaging and media content, destroying the separation that defined Snapchat's identity.
- Longtime users felt the app was becoming another Instagram, and the backlash was amplified by celebrities and a viral petition.
- The redesign was rolled out during a critical growth period when Instagram was already gaining ground with its Stories clone.
- Snap's response was slow and the partial reversal came too late to prevent the user exodus.
The lesson
A redesign that changes what the app is — not just how it looks — will alienate the users who came for the original identity. You don't lose a feature test; you lose the reason people chose you.
Aftermath
Snap partially reversed the redesign and refocused on its core messaging and camera features. The company eventually returned to growth, but Instagram Stories had permanently surpassed Snapchat in scale. The case is now taught as a cautionary tale about redesigning a product's core identity under competitive pressure.
Sources
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