Snapchat: Homewrecker

Hysteria broke among Madison High School students this past Tuesday and it was not because of the “Snowpocolypse.” The very popular app Snapchat made an update to their system that made large changes to the way app functioned. Many app users are unhappy with the changes and say that it will affect how much they use the app; some even question if they will continue to use the app at all.

There are multiple changes to the app that are different because of the update. Firstly, the camera button has been moved to the right side of the home screen and the chat button has replaced it on the left side of the screen. Additionally, Snapchat now features a “discover” option that was not available to users before. The discover option allows users to view videos from different commercial sources such as Cosmopolitan, Food Network, and CNN. There is also a new button on the top of the camera screen shaped as a ghost. When this button is hit, it takes the Snapchat user to a new screen. On this screen there is a picture of the app with the Snapchat user’s name under it. If this picture is shown under another Snapchat camera on a different phone, the user can be added instantaneously. Another function on this screen has options for the user to add friends and for the user to view their contacts along with the settings button. Another change to the app includes that there is a separate page for stories that only displays the contacts that have posted a story on the app.

The last and most controversial change to the app is that now Snapchat users cannot view the best friends of their friends on Snapchat. Best friends on Snapchat are the people that users send the most Snapchats to out of the people on their friend list. This change causes the most controversy because many Snapchat users are concerned at the fact they cannot track to whom their significant other chooses to send Snapchats. Many Snapchat users feel threatened by this change for this reason. Other Snapchat users say that this will save more relationships because people cannot get upset over who their significant other sends Snapchats to and will create less drama. Overall, most users agree that this feature gives more privacy to the user.

There have been many rumors that Snapchat is going to bring back the feature of viewing best friends because of all the complaints that users have made. Hopefully, Snapchat will make the decision soon so as to not enrage teenagers any further.