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Snapchat Responds To Change.Org Petition Complaining About the App's Redesign (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the tough-luck dept.

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.

36 comments

  1. I'm so old by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

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

    1. Re:I'm so old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

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

    2. Re:I'm so old by enjar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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

    3. Re:I'm so old by darkain · · Score: 2

      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!

    4. Re:I'm so old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They (founders) got "famous" by appearing on Leno or Letterman.. Considering neither of them are even on the air any more, good lord I'm old :(

      FWIW they were outright asked if images were really deleted and they said yes... with a grin. Yet here we are.

    5. Re:I'm so old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      . Somehow it has a valuation in the tens of billions despite losing $500M a year.

      No, I don't get it, either

      You don't get that a company can loose $500M a year while the suits skim off $400M a year? Not sustainable, but quite a gravy train while it lasts.

    6. Re:I'm so old by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      I thought the looping video app was Vine.

    7. Re:I'm so old by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      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 easy target to a professional jewel thief. They could probably be in and out without me even noticing. But I'm far more likely to be hit by a burglar after an iPhone and for that all I have to be is harder to rob than my neighbours.

      Likewise with mesages. I see my contemporaries posting all sorts of crap all over facebook to be archived in perpetuity by default. A system which by default erases after 3 seconds (is that it?) is not secure against a determined attacker, but is on average, and on average is what matters the majority of the time.

      So no it's not secure, but deletion is a good default and ia much better on average.

      And now I'm going back to my IRC bouncer. It's secure with pictures by virture of being incapable of posting pictures in the first place. /away

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    8. Re:I'm so old by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      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, you took a screenshot. That's it.

      Now, on Android, the app would disable the screenshot service, while on iOS this wasn't possible, so it would detect that it would happen (and thus supposedly send a message to the sender that their image was saved). This of course broke in iOS 8 or 9 when the mechanism Snapchat used no longer worked due to changes in the OS (since screenshots should be done with as little impact as possible)

      Then it was discovered the app was not deleting the images as promised, and on both Android and iOS it was possible to recover the "deleted" images.

      I think it was that, plus the iOS change that did Snapchat in - because they could no longer rely on images being fleeting that they had to pivot. That and well, I believe on Android some people had apps that simply scanned Snapchat's data directory and snatched a copy of the files too.

    9. Re:I'm so old by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      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 Android, the app would disable the screenshot service, while on iOS this wasn't possible, so it would detect that it would happen (and thus supposedly send a message to the sender that their image was saved). This of course broke in iOS 8 or 9 when the mechanism Snapchat used no longer worked due to changes in the OS (since screenshots should be done with as little impact as possible)

      No idea. One could always photograph the screen. But even so, most people most of the time are lazy. The always archive model requires no effort. The non archiving model requires effort every time, so on the whole most stuff won't be archived.

      Personally, I'd never trust anything like that with data I didn't want archived. but FFS, people trust twitter and facebook and those are not only permanent but mostly public.

      I don't get it, not even slightly, but to me private and autodeleted is a better default even if it's unreliable than archived and public (when Zuck decides to fuck over your privacy options yet again).

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    10. Re: I'm so old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually Instagram is like SnapChat.

      Facefuck steals ideas from other companies then imitates them.

    11. Re:I'm so old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I don't get it, not even slightly, but to me private and autodeleted is a better default even if it's unreliable than archived and public (when Zuck decides to fuck over your privacy options yet again)."

      but yet you are still arguing about using an extra form of communication that is run by a third party. how do you guarantee that that third party is telling you the truth that the pics are automatically deleted and they aren't just archiving them. After-all it takes some kind of sociopath to run a company that doesn't charge their "customers", you know the same kind of person as the archive it all mentality.

      How about this, use forms of communication that are based on standard protocols and are carrier independent and instead of trusting the message carrier you should take a good hard look at the people you are communicating with. This way if the carrier is even suspected of nefarious motives then a new carrier can be found with out changing your method of communications. There are so many messaging apps out there that all focus on vendor lock-in and all in the name of providing you "features" that really dont actually add anything to the communication. These "social media" platforms do nothing except for feeding egos and making this world a more selfish place day by day.

  2. Ditto for Pandora by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pandora's 10ft interface assumes you have less than 5 active stations

  3. they should ask for their money back by enjar · · Score: 1

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

    1. Re:they should ask for their money back by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      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?

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    2. Re:they should ask for their money back by antdude · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  4. Fake boycots never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Fake boycots never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm boycotting the fuck out of it right now.

      As well as about 9000 other products.

      "Vote with your wallet" is kool-aid.

  5. poor response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People had an extremely specific request to return to the old interface, while these are concessions they have utterly failed to return to the older interface instead trying to ram this one down their users throats with minor modifications.

    Poorly run company, does not respond to user input, has a case of itchy GUI update for no valid reason.

  6. snapchat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this a new coding method used over the telegraph?

  7. Online petitions are useless by Chas · · Score: 1

    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.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:Online petitions are useless by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Online petitions are useless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was this really change.org worthy? Aren't there slightly more important issues in the US?

    3. Re:Online petitions are useless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Change.org is basically a DNC talking point platform. Things that do not match that get ignored. Hell they named it after Obamas talking point to bash on Bush. It makes people feel empowered when its basically 'internet points' to be ignored or taken seriously depending on how the political winds are blowing that day.

  8. Get thee to github by Drunkulus · · Score: 1

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

    1. Re:Get thee to github by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      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 not supposed to.
      2. find someone with an authentication server and create an account there. If you can't find one...
            a. spin up LAMP stack. You've got dedicated hardware for this, right? If not, you're cool with dropping $50 on a VPS, right?
            b. install OpenSnap Server, configure port forwards, purchase domain so you can get an SSL cert, buy certificate or configure certbot, enable authentication, configure firewall, implement ways to prevent spammers from creating a bunch of accounts, make sure it is seamless, then make sure you can keep a solid at-least 99% uptime......
        3. federate with other OpenSnap Server operators to facilitate communication between server hosts. Also, you'll have to figure out which servers are possible to federate to, and which ones are safe.
        4. convince a bunch of other people to install OpenSnap.
        5. exchange images of genitals. ...and all of that assumes that OpenSnap is already programmed by competent programmers such that the only thing to do is sysadmin the app.

      Now, you could go the other way and create NotSnapChat, with the same core functions, but the reality is that Instagram, WhatsApp, and Viber already support expiring messages and have infrastructure and millions of users, so it'll be a bit of an uphill battle.

      That...is a rather tall expectation of the sorts of folks who use SnapChat enough to call the old layout 'easy to use'.

  9. Reminds me of Digg by hazem · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Reminds me of Digg by jarkus4 · · Score: 1

      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).

    2. Re:Reminds me of Digg by jcr · · Score: 1

      I used Digg pretty heavily for a couple of months, and then I found that Reddit was more convenient. What changes did Digg make?

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  10. Computer, right? Programmable, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aren't all of these things computers? Aren't they programmable? Why not give both UIs? Give people choice? Maybe even let people build their own interface? Am I on to something marketable? So many unanswered questions...

  11. Change = More Revenue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Snapchat insisting on this update means it helps them earn more revenue. So you, the user, is basically f*cked.

  12. "Mainstream users" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Once again the inferior Mobile Minority breaches containment and fucks up yet another site.

  13. Snap what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whatâ(TM)s Snapchat and why is an article here?

  14. I'm old too by Tighe_L · · Score: 1

    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.

  15. Carry 2 phones. Never check it without cam 2 load by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come on this company isn't sly. Sheeple you're stupid if you think those photos don't make it to the public in sneaky places. I know where fools.

    gee nobody can see it but me oh except other camera photos of it displayed on the phone. never mind hacked apps etc. It's fake at the utmost base level.