Snapchat unveils its big redesign which separates the social from the media

Snapchat redesignAfter its founder and CEO Evan Spiegel launched an attack on Facebook – without mentioning the social network directly – for stealing its features and the social network’s fake news problem, Snap laid out exactly how its Snapchat app will appear when its redesign lands.

The new Snapchat will still open to the camera, as it always has. The real changes appear either side of the camera.

To the left, there will be ‘Friends’ page where users will see their friends’ Stories and Bitmojis, as well their chats with them. To the right, Snapchatters will see a redesigned ‘Discover’ page with Stories from publishers, creators, and the community via Snap Map, Search, and Our Stories. The curated content on Discover will be presented in a full-screen, vertical scroll – as opposed to the previous horizontal scroll.

As part of the redesign, Snap will begin focusing on making the experience more rewarding for creators by offering them improved distribution and monetisation opportunities. Furthermore, the update has moved the management of users’ own Stories to their Profile page, and each group chat will now automatically have its own optional group story.

“With the upcoming redesign of Snapchat, we are separating the social from the media, and taking an important step forward towards strengthening our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media,” said Spiegel. “This will provide a better way for publishers to distribute and monetise their Stories, and a more personal way for friends to communicate and find the content they want to watch.”

The overhaul will be rolled out to a small percentage of users this week, before becoming more widely available ‘in the coming weeks’.