The people have spoken. And so has Kylie Jenner.
Snap began rolling out another round of design changes to most of its iPhone Snapchat users late Thursday, following widespread backlash to the app's redesign launched last year.
The redesign to the redesign separates stories from messages and sorts chats, pictures and videos from friends in reverse chronological order, as they were before the major update. Stories from friends will also move to the right side of the app, but they will remain separate from content created by brands. The tweaks to the app, Snap hopes, will appease dissatisfied users and bolster engagement with the social media platform.
Snapchat's redesign last year confused many users. It shuffled the placement of stories and arranged communications out of chronological order, which users found confusing. Some reported that it made the app harder to navigate and that the rearrangement didn't produce any benefit to the user. The company's stock price fell after celebrities such as Jenner and Chrissy Teigen criticized the app on Twitter, too.
More than 1 million people signed a Change.org petition to prod the company to undo the update. Snap acknowledged some of the criticism in February, saying, "We completely understand the new Snapchat has felt uncomfortable for many."
But the public outcry left Snap's advertisers skittish. During the company's earnings report this month, chief executive Evan Spiegel said the overhaul hurt Snap's financial prospects. “Our redesign created some head winds in our revenue this quarter by disrupting user behavior and creating some apprehension among our advertising partners,” he said during the first-quarter earnings call.
Snap failed to meet estimates for both revenue and daily active users. The company was expected to report more than 194 million users but fell short at 191 million. Snap's stock has fallen more than 20 percent since the disappointing report and has not recovered.
The company says that it still has work to do to improve the new layout.
“We learned that combining 'watching stories' and 'communicating with friends' into the same place made it harder to optimize for both competing behaviors,” Speigel said during the call. “The redesign created a lot of new opportunities, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to refine and improve Snapchat."
Snap has also created a separate subscriptions feed for users to find content posted by their favorite shows and publishers. The company has not said when Android users will see the latest update.