Hands up if you hate Snapchat’s latest redesign? Well, while we know it’s been incredibly controversial, that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t paid off for the company, at least in terms of downloads.
According to the most recent analytics from Sensor Tower, the app has seen a huge surge in first-time downloads despite the new design that has affected both iOS and Android devices. Data shows that Snapchat has experienced a 55 percent week-over-week increase in first-time downloads over the seven day period following the rollout of the new design. The per-day growth peaked at 76 percent increase, with a maximum increase of 41 percent. Check the chart below if you don’t believe us!
This means that, overall, the amount of people downloading Snapchat for the first time has increased from 589,000 during the week of January 30th to February 5th to a staggering 911,000 between February 6th and February 12th. Of course, these numbers don’t account for instances where the same account has been used to download the app again.
What’s happening, then? Are people downloading the app out of curiosity, just to see what all the fuss is about with this new redesign? Maybe it’s all down to Kylie Jenner’s tweet – ““sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.” This made the app rocket to No.1 in the United States charts.
The redesign separates content from friends from celebrity and public stories and it has been anything but well-received. Despite the backlash, the company has stated that it will not be rolling back the design.
It’s important to remember that downloads do not tell the full story. It’s unclear what percentage of these new downloads converted into regular users but it’s very possible that it was a small percentage. Snapchat rolled out the redesign after a strong earnings report in Q4 so it’s likely that this spike in downloads will carry the company through the rest of this year.
What are your thoughts on the new design? Will you be giving up Snapchat for good or where you one of the people who downloaded it to check out the new look?