Snapchat is undergoing its biggest redesign in years by simplifying from five to three tabs: one for messages and Stories with friends, one for the camera, and another for a TikTok-like feed of full-screen videos from creators and publishers.
The redesign, dubbed “Simple Snapchat,” was announced onstage Tuesday at Snap’s annual Partner Summit in Los Angeles. “It brings Stories closer to conversations, it simplifies content discovery, and it brings people straight into our camera to express themselves,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel tells The Verge.
Until now, Snapchat has consisted of five main tabs: one for the Snap Map, private chats, the camera, Stories, and Spotlight, its competitor to TikTok and Instagram Reels. Once this redesign is rolled out to Snapchat’s 850 million users, the Snap Map will be accessible from the messaging tab, along with Stories from your friends and creators you follow.
To the right of the camera is a new, integrated feed of full-screen videos from publishers and creators. Here, Snap integrates Spotlight with content from media brands like the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Mail. According to Spiegel, the company makes most of its money from the ads it runs on this project, so it’s carefully curated so that “we really understand the changes in the dynamic of the content.”
The high-level goal of this new design is to make Snapchat more accessible and an exciting way to watch videos when you go to TikTok or Instagram. Spiegel also believes it will improve business for Snap’s creators, who share a billion pieces of content per month on the app.
“One of the things creators have done is use a short video to grow an audience for their content, and then monetize that content through our revenue sharing program, ” he said. “I think it will be easier with this design of the app, where the comments of your friends or creators you follow are on the chat page, and then you can find new creators or new content throughout screen in the third tab.
