GettySnapchat have clapped back at their disgruntled app users, after the most unpopular update since The iOS Who Must Not Be Named – and Michael Bay got his mucky paws on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The app bosses gave Snapchat a little facelift in the latest update and they’ve totally botched it, according the the World Wide Web.
The latest redesign, which was released last week, focused on separating ‘media content’ from content shared by ‘friends’ among an array of other interface changes.
Getty‘Snapchat Stories’, which are videos and photos shared among users which vanish after 24 hours, also now appear with individual Snaps and direct messages.
Over the weekend, Snapchat warned users who are trying to get around the new update by reinstalling the old version, could lose memories after logging out of the app to do so.
They shared this tweet, emojis included:
Before reinstalling Snapchat or logging out, make sure Memories are backed up or you could lose them ?
Settings > Memories > Backup Progress ‘Complete’ means you’re all set. If not, tap to see which Snaps need backing up.
You'll also need your password so you can log back in!
— Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport) February 10, 2018
Yet they’ve since gone a step further to stop people trying these ‘workarounds’.
A post on Twitter by Snapchat Support earlier this week warned Snapchat users not to ‘believe everything you read on the internet’.
Instead, they directed the lost and confused to the Snapchat Update FAQ:
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet — unofficial workarounds to change the way Snapchat looks are temporary and can result in getting permanently locked out of your account or losing Memories ?
For help with what’s new, go to https://t.co/j7uDxAwOrO
— Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport) February 11, 2018
They warned users they could be ‘permanently locked out of accounts’ if they tried to defy the new Snapchat update overlords – leaving young people today with only hundreds more methods of communicating via their phones.
Streuth! People are not happy.
As of Tuesday morning (February 13) for example, a petition on Change.org to remove the new update has attracted over 660,000 of a targeted one million signatures.
PexelsThe petition was authored by Australian user Nic Rumsey, who wrote:
Many users have found it has not made the app easier to use but has in fact made many features more difficult.
There’s a general level of annoyance among users and many have decided to use a VPN app to go back to the old Snapchat, as that’s how annoying this new update has become.
This petition aims to help convince Snap Inc to change the app back to the basics, before this new 2018 update.
PAThe company itself is of the belief they’ll be able to ride this storm out, however a spokesperson told CNN:
Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it fellas. Perhaps the guys over at Snapchat haven’t realised how little kids of today like change – and how much they rely on the ability to turn themselves into masked mice and dogs with their tongues sticking out.
PexelsGod forbid we actually have to speak face-to-face – rather than Snapchat filter to Snapchat filter – with our friends who all look like animalistic anime characters.
The question remains: Does anyone even use Snapchat anymore?
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.