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Snapchat update slammed by users who say the redesigned app is far harder to use

Fans are complaining about struggling to find and use their favourite features

Aatif Sulleyman

Friday 12 January 2018 14:10 GMT

A Snapchat logo is seen through broken glass in this illustration picture, May 11, 2017 (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

Snapchat’s major new update hasn’t gone down well with users, and the app is now being bombarded with negative reviews.

The company has made several dramatic changes, which have left fans confused and frustrated.

Unfortunately for Snapchat, they’re not being shy about how they feel.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

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1/17Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Find your friends

When you swipe right on the main camera screen, you’ll come to the Friends page. This is where Stories, Snaps, messages and group chats are, but they’re no longer ordered chronologically. Instead, new Snaps and messages, and any new Stories that Snapchat thinks you’ll be interested in, will sit near top of the Friends page. If you’re struggling to find one of your friends, you can type their name into the search bar at the top of the screen. To make different types of content easier to find, Snapchat is adding three tabs to the Friends page – Stories, Groups and All.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Watch Stories

If one of your friends has posted a Story you haven’t yet watched, you’ll see a circular preview bubble to the left of their name. To watch the Story, tap the bubble. After you watch a friend’s Story, you’ll see a preview of another friend’s Story. You can tap the screen to watch it, swipe to skip it or swipe down to exit. To re-watch a friend’s Story after you’ve already seen it, you need to open their profile by tapping their bitmoji on the Friends page.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Post Stories

You can post your own Stories by taking a picture or recording a video on the main camera screen, then tapping the arrow in the bottom-right corner and selecting My Story. To check out your Story views and delete Snaps from your Story, you need to visit your Profile page. You can find it by going to the main camera page, hitting the profile picture immediately to the left of the Search bar at the top of the screen, and tapping the My Story panel.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Send Snaps

To send a Snap, take a picture or record a video on the main camera screen, tap the arrow in the bottom-right corner and choose your friends from the list. The eight people you interact with most on Snapchat sit at the top of the list.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Discover content

When you swipe left on the main camera screen, you’ll find the Discover page. Here’s where you can access Shows, content from publishers, Stories from people you follow – but aren’t friends with – and Snaps from creators, Snap Map and Our Story. To find something specific in Discover, use the Search bar at the top of the screen. To see less of a certain type of content here, you can tap and hold a tile and hit See Less Like This or Unsubscribe.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Mute friends

You can mute your friends without them realising, with Do Not Disturb. To enable it, just tap and hold the person or group you want to silence, select Settings from the popup menu and hit Do Not Disturb. You’ll no longer receive notifications from that conversation, but you’ll still be able to access it, check any unread messages and Snaps and send your own too.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Shoot longer Snaps

You can record up to 60 seconds of Snapchat footage with Multi-Snap (the previous limit was 10 seconds). All you need to do is tap and hold the circular Record button, and keep holding it for up to 60 seconds. Snapchat will split the footage into 10-second segments that you can edit individually, though your recording will play continuously when you send it to your friends or add it to your Story.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Draw with emoji

You can draw with emoji rather than regular digital brushstrokes by tapping the pen icon after you’ve shot a snap and then hitting the symbol under the colour palette.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Build Geofilters

You can create your own Geofilters, for occasions like weddings and birthdays, or even for places that are special to you. Go to Settings, hit On-Demand Geofilters and choose when and where you’d like it to appear.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Use multiple filters

Once you’ve applied a filter to your snap, tap and hold the screen with one finger and swipe with another to layer another filter on top of it.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Save data

You can reduce the amount of data Snapchat munches through by enabling Travel Mode. Find it by going to Settings and tapping Manage Preferences.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Understand emoji

From here, you can also learn what those emoji that appear alongside your friends’ names mean. You can change the ones you don’t like by tapping them.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Understand message types

It’s also useful to understand what Snapchat’s different-coloured arrows and squares mean, so you’ll no longer be unsure whether you can open a certain message in public or not.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Collect trophies

You can find out how many Snapchat trophies you’ve earned by going to your Profile page and tapping the Trophies button. You can unlock more by trying out new things with the app.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Access Snap Map

You can access the controversial Snap Map, which shows you where in the world your friends are, by pinching the main camera screen. You can also hide yourself from fellow Snapchat users by tapping the Settings icon and enabling Ghost Mode.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Discover new music

You can Shazam a song within Snapchat by tapping and holding the camera screen. Once it identifies it, you can share the song with your friends.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app

Get new features early

You can get access to new and experimental features before regular Snapchat users by joining the Snapchat beta. In the Settings menu, tap Join Snapchat Beta.

83 per cent (1,941) of user reviews for the update on Apple’s App Store are very poor, giving it either one or two stars out of five, according to data from mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower, reported in TechCrunch.

The data also indicates that just 391 of the reviews give the update three, four or five stars.

Users have said they’re struggling to find their favourite features, and that the app has become more confusing.

One of the biggest criticisms surrounds the redesign of the old Stories page, which you used to be able to access by swiping left on the main camera screen.

You now have to swipe right on the camera screen to access your friends’ Stories, which are mixed in with regular messages.

On the opposite side of the camera screen – where Stories used to be – is the new Discover page, which shows Stories from publishers and creators.

Snapchat’s Support team, meanwhile, has been busy responding to complaints from users on Twitter.

“It’s not possible to revert to a previous version of Snapchat, but we’re happy to answer any questions you have about the new layout,” it wrote in a reply to a user this morning.

Several other tweets from the account have attempted to make it easier for people to use the new version of the app.

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