Snapchat’s plan to keep you on it
If you’ve been on Snapchat much recently, as most people in my generation have, you’ve noticed that the app has begun to implement several new updates all with the same goal: Lengthen users time on the app.
Instead of trying to get people to open the app more often, Snapchat is trying to extend the period of time that people are on the app during a given interaction. As a free app, Snapchat turns a profit from the advertisements placed in between people’s stories. Therefore, the more time that somebody spends sifting through everyone’s stories, the more advertisements they see, and the more money Snapchat makes. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321002666)
Snapchat does this in several ways. First, they’ve added public stories to the user’s interface in a much more intrusive manner than before. Alongside icons that preview your friends’ stories, you now see public stories posted by people whom you are not friends with. Typically, these are people you share common friends with, so the algorithm is trying to get you to add them as a friend. The more friends you have, the longer you spend on the app, generating revenue. The second goal this accomplishes is by sneaking these non-friend stories in with the people you actually have added, they are given a sense of legitimacy that entices the user to click on an interact with the story. Of course, between all of these stories is sponsored content that snapchat wants you to interact with.
Another way that Snapchat tries to elongate your interactions on the app is a new feature on the chat interface. Previously, this screen was just a list of everyone you have ever chatted with, from most to least recent. Now, there is a panel just above this list, which allows the user to sort these chats by groups, friends with unviewed stories, and best friends. This all may seem like it’s in the name of convenience, but the main two categories are Snapchat’s bread and butter. These are “unread” and “reply”. These sorting mechanisms basically force the user to acknowledge chats they have received but not opened yet. In the past, if you wanted to temporarily (or permanently) ignore chats that somebody sent you, not responding would cause them to slip down your screen until they are gone, replaced by more recent interactions. Now, you have no choice but to see them every single time you open the chat interface. Snapchat’s goal is that eventually, users will be directed to engage in conversations, thus lengthening their engagement with the app. This fits along with the persuasion idea argued in Webs of Influence, by Natalie Nahai, as she describes how different tactics can work together to eventually convince the user to act how the developer wants.
Having made updates to your story and chat screens, the last place Snapchat has aimed to lengthen your interaction with is the home screen, mainly with their “memories” feature. Before this new strategy, the only memories you were shown were those that took place “on this day”, in previous years. So today, I see everything I have saved on snapchat on February 6th, dating as far back as 2019. But recently, Snapchat has expanded this feature to include other panels for the user to interact with. Now, I see the last couple days. I can still go back and view my memories from the 5th, 4th, 3rd, and so on. I also get to see a recap of everything I saved during the month of January, my camera roll from this day one year ago, and even a “random” story that compiles past content that has no significance to February 6, 2024. The goal with these features are to get people to not only spend more time on the app viewing them, but also to encourage them to create and save more content that will be recycled back into these categories in the future.