Snapchat has teased us with the report that a “disruptive update” will soon come to its iOS application. According to Business Insider the company plans to roll this out on December 4 and it will come with a whole host of changes.
Despite a number of major updates, the app will still open directly to the camera. This has long been a point of pride as it allows users to directly capture photos and videos to ensure that nothing is missed.
Snapchat is currently arranged in a three screen interface, opening first to the camera while a swipe left brings up your friends’ threads and a swipe right brings up Stories. With the upcoming redesign, all communication with your friends will be housed on the left hand side of the camera meaning that your threads will be right alongside Stories and content from friends.
On the right, content from Snapchat’s publishing partners such as Daily Mail, NBC and Mashable will stand alongside stories from verified celebrities. This is an aim to separate a users personal friends with celebs.
Snapchat will also begin to use algorithms to provide an “endless feed of videos to the right of the camera” but as of yet its unclear as to what this interface will look like and how celebrity and aggregated content will fall into it. We do know that the company is referring to this as the “democratization of content.”
During Tuesday’s earnings, CEO Evan Spiegel briefly mentioned the iOS app, finally acknowledging the long-standing criticism that the app is hard to use.
