Snapchat's Vision and Purpose- the Walkthrough continued

            The recent Snapchat update has caused outrage amongst its users, rendering the company to lose many of them. The reason being: people do not like change; they want snapchat to be simple because that is the perceived outlook of the application. The redesign separated the app into two sides; separating chats and stories from friends from content of media activities (e.g. celebrities and news). Snapchat’s goal was to expand the app appeal to older demographics but nevertheless failed the majority of the users which are of the younger demographic (Bowles, 2018). The New York Times interviewed Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel who was unapologetic about the update, “we’re thinking a lot about how our products will help us accomplish our mission,” (Bowles, 2018).

            The vision of the app revolves around the fact that Snapchat is a camera. It’s a new kind of camera that’s connected to your friends and the world. The company’s vision is “reinventing the camera that represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate,” (“Snapchat”). The app is positioned to shape user experience through different features: inviting you to add friends from your contact list, asking you to share your location (snap map and geofilters- allowing to see yourself in proximity to others), and so on. It is important to note that the first thing that pops up when the app is opened is you. Or in other words, it is the camera page. Thus, the app encourages you to take photos of yourself and to share them. Everything is based on the central camera page: swipe left and it’s the chat/friends list, swipe right and it’s the story/discovery page, swipe up and it’s the settings page and swipe down for the memories. Hence, the camera is the reason Snapchat is a unique interactive tool.

            Due to this, Snapchat is one of the many social networking apps that help reduce social isolation. The photograph-based exchange supports participation and thus, social interaction (Baier, Hoepner & Sather, 2018). The purpose of Snapchat is the enjoyment of sharing about yourself, rendering it a unique universal social networking platform (Baier, Hoepner & Sather, 2018). Nonetheless, the platform runs off of a specific operating model. It gains profit from its discovery page, where one will find a variety of advertisements placed into news stories, quizzes, celebrity stories and subscriptions, which all in turn fund Snapchat. Together with Snapchat’s vision and operating model comes its governance; the sense of how the app manages everyday activity in order to sustain the operating model and fulfill the vision.

            This is done with Snapchat’s code of conduct: keep it legal, you are accountable for your actions and speak up if you have questions or concerns (“Snapchat”). Snapchat vouches to contribute to human progress by encouraging people to express themselves but also ensures safety against harassment, hate speech, spam, etc.

            Therefore, Snapchat is a unique social media platform because the main communication outlet is done through the sending and receiving of pictures. Well, after all a picture says a thousand words.

References:

Baier, C.K., Hoepner, J.K., & Sather, T.W. (2018). Exploring Snapchat as a dynamic capture tool for social networking in persons with aphasia. Aphasiology, 32(11), 1336-1359. doi:10.1080/02687038.2017.14098970

Bowles, N. (2018). Snap to Tweak Snapchat's Redesign After Users Complain. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/technology/snapchat-redesign-snap-earnings.html

The fastest way to share a moment! (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.snapchat.com/ 

Snapchat's features of friends and location displayed

The story and discovery page