A Streamlined Planned Version Of Its App Dropped by Snapchat

Snap announced in its Q1 2025 earnings report that it is abandoning plans for a streamlined interface.

The announcement was made just seven months after Snapchat started testing an updated version of the app that did not include the Stories or Snapmap tabs. The app’s navigation bar was reorganized in the latest edition to centre on three icons: chat, camera, and Spotlight, Snapchat’s rival on TikTok.

Last year, the firm began testing the “Simple Snapchat” redesign, which would have given users tabs for Stories, the camera, and Spotlight, its TikTok-like video stream, instead of the Snap Map and private conversations tabs in the main navigation bar.

The social network will now start testing a “refined five-tab interface” that retains all of the app’s current tabs and makes it simpler to access Spotlight, rather than sticking with the basic version.

After months of testing, Snap is suddenly reversing these intentions, perhaps due to decreased usage or user annoyance. In a letter to investors, Snap states, “Our most engaged Snapchatters consistently showed a preference for a five-tab layout, favouring the familiarity of tile-based content discovery and a dedicated Map tab.” After a revamp in 2018 that separated content from friends and brands, Snap’s stock plummeted and customers flocked elsewhere.

During a call with investors, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel stated, “We learned a lot from the redesign, but in the end, we discovered that it was challenging, particularly for power users, folks which really love Snapchat the way that it is and utilize the map and stories continuously, to really embrace the three-tab design, which made it more difficult to find stories and subscriptions and harder to find the map.” “In the end, we’re using the lessons learned from the basic three-tab Snapchat design to improve the five-tab design.” 

A greater prominence of Spotlight experience and the incorporation of Friend Stories into conversations, according to the business, greatly increased regular viewership and total content views, particularly among casual users.

As stated in its letter to investors, “Our most engaged Snapchatters have consistently shown a preference for a five-tab layout, preferring the familiarity of tile-based finding content and a dedicated Map tab.” Based on these observations, we have started testing an improved five-tab design that incorporates the best features of both strategies: adding more Stories to the messaging experience and making Spotlight, which is now located just to the right of the Camera, easier to reach.

The reversal coincides with Snap’s announcement that, in the first quarter, it lost one million North American users. According to Snap’s shareholder letter, the number of Snapchat DAUs (daily active users) in North America was 99 million, down from 100 million in the previous quarter and 100 million in the previous year.

As Spiegel hinted at potential AI-related announcements later this year, the company also experienced a rise of over 55% in the number of My AI daily active users in the U.S. year over year. 

“That visual communication is really where we want to stand out when we look at the areas,” he stated. Therefore, we examine how users are interacting with My AI, sending and receiving snaps and chat responses, respectively. That, in my opinion, begins to illustrate how these multimodal models will significantly impact people’s lives. Looking even farther forward, I believe we’re making significant investments in the way people will incorporate AI into augmented reality and create a completely new AI-powered user experience. Later this year, we’ll make further announcements regarding that.

The business claims that the recently redesigned five-tab structure “combines the best of both approaches” by adding more Stories to the messaging experience and making Spotlight, which will be located directly to the right of the camera button, easier to locate.

Snap doesn’t specify where the redesign was tested or how extensively it was implemented. However, in the most recent quarter, the firm reported a decline in North American users, from 100 million in Q4 2024 to 99 million daily active users. For almost three years, Snapchat’s usage in North America has remained basically unchanged.

Snap announced a 14 percent compared to the previous increase in revenue to $1.36 billion, which it attributed to growth in advertising and its Snapchat Plus subscription, despite a decline in North American users. It has 460 million daily active users worldwide, up from 453 million in the previous quarter.