Snapchat scraps ‘simple’ redesign as it loses users in North America

Snap is backing distant from plans to simplify the plan of Snapchat arsenic it reports losing 1 cardinal users successful North America. As portion of its Q1 2025 net study connected Tuesday, Snap revealed that it’s alternatively going to commencement investigating a “refined” layout that keeps the app’s 5 existing tabs.

The company archetypal started testing the “Simple Snapchat” redesign past year, which would’ve removed the Snap Map and backstage chats tabs from the main navigation bar, leaving users with tabs for Stories, the camera, and its TikTok-like video feed, Spotlight.

Snap is present reversing these plans aft months of testing, seemingly aft seeing reduced usage oregon idiosyncratic frustration. “Our‬‭ most‬‭ engaged‬‭ Snapchatters‬‭ consistently‬‭ demonstrated‬‭ a‬‭ preference‬‭ for‬‭ a‬‭ five-tab‬‭ layout, favoring‬ the‬‭ familiarity‬‭ of‬‭ tile-based‬‭ content‬‭ discovery‬‭ and‬‭ a‬‭ dedicated‬‭ Map‬‭ tab,” Snap writes successful a missive to investors. In 2018, Snap’s stock sunk and users fled pursuing a redesign aimed astatine keeping content from friends and brands separated.

The recently revamped five-tab layout “combines the champion of some approaches,” the institution says, arsenic it volition bring much Stories to the messaging acquisition and marque it easier to find Spotlight, which volition look straight to the close of the camera button.

Snap doesn’t accidental however wide the redesign was rolled retired oregon wherever it was tested. But the institution reported losing users successful North America successful the astir caller quarter, falling to 99 cardinal regular progressive users, down from 100 cardinal users successful Q4 2024. Snapchat’s usage successful North America has been fundamentally level for adjacent to 3 years.

Despite a alteration successful North American users, Snap reported a 14 percent year-over-year summation successful gross to $1.36 billion, which it attributes to maturation successful advertizing and its Snapchat Plus subscription. Its planetary regular progressive users proceed to grow, expanding to 460 cardinal from 453 cardinal past quarter.