Snapchat, though favored by youth demography, but competition from Instagram and the fact that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, has made it a turn off for the more matured populations.
Snap is harping on a new enhancement that will provide its over 170 million active users with personalized experience, leveraging the benefits of machine learning without compromising the editorial integrity of the Stories platform.
According to the company, it now index millions of Stories every day through its work around Search and Maps, availing it the long tail of content necessary to provide a truly personal experience.
Also, a facelift is eminent as Snap acknowledges the difficulty of users to understand its app, prompting the team to consider a redesign for the messaging app to make it easier to use.
Snapchat growth slowed to 13.8 percent, 14 percent in Q1 2016 and 17.2 percent in Q2 2016 to reach 143 daily active users, which isn't enough to satisfy investors or keep up with Facebook’s Instagram.
The company is betting that a makeover will be disruptive in the short term, but maintains that they can't predict the behavior of its community of users, which may change with the updated application.
If the redesign is screwed up, Snapchat could see more teens abandon the app, even as Instagram is making it harder for Snap to gain foothold in the matured age groups.
Snapchat’s content is scattered across the Stories list, the Discover channel, search and Snap Map, and the algorithmic Stories feed was implemented to make it easier for people to find things they care about, instead of using the reverse-chronological feed that shows what have been posted most recently.
