Skip to main content

Snapchat finally recovers from its redesign — so here comes an Android update

snapchat story
dennizn/123RF

Snapchat’s freefall after a launching an unpopular redesign has finally slowed and now the company is beginning to roll out a redesigned Android app. Snap Inc. announced its fourth quarter and end of year results for 2018 on Tuesday, February 5. The report turns around six months of losing users while the financial results exceeded the company’s own predictions.

Recommended Videos

Snapchat users number 186 million — the same as the number of users reported last quarter, following two quarters of declines in the app’s user base. Those numbers are still lower than the 191 million from the start of the year but show that Snapchat’s user base has stabilized following the decline sparked by a complete redesign of the app.

The company’s revenue increased 36 percent, hitting a record $390 million for the company, though still not enough for the company to turn a profit. The increase in profit helped the company post a smaller loss than the year before and sparked a jump in stock prices.

While the company is still stabilizing after redesigning the app, the company is beginning to test a new version of the Android app with a small percentage of users. While the earlier app overhaul was designed to adjust the interface to simplify the app for new users, the Android update is designed to improve performance. 

The company has been working on improving the Android experience from what it calls a buggy and slow performance. In the quarterly report, Snap says that early testing of the Android update shows a 20 percent faster load time when opening the app.

“In 2018, we focused on building a foundation to scale the business over the long-term by driving sustainable product innovation, scaling our advertising platform, and hiring the leadership team that will help us achieve our future goals,” Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel said in the report. “We ended the year with user engagement stabilizing and have started rolling out the new version of our Android application to a small percentage of our community. We are substantially closer to achieving profitability, as we have maintained a relatively flat cost structure across the past five quarters while growing full-year revenue 43 percent year-over-year.”

Additional stats from the last quarter show positive notes for Lenses and Publisher Stories. Snap says that more than 70 percent of users use a Lens ever day. The new Lens Studio created 300,000 new Lenses. Views for Publisher Stories and Shows are up by about 30 percent.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Android 11 update: Here’s when your phone is getting new software
Google Pixel 4a Front

Android 11 is here. The new mobile operating system isn't necessarily as groundbreaking as some previous updates, but it still brings several new privacy features, as well as some visual changes that should make accessing things like smart home devices a whole lot easier.

Of course, you might be wondering exactly when your phone is getting Android 11. The good news is that Android 11 is coming to more devices week by week. The bad news is that even months after it debuted, some phones still haven't received the update or only have early betas available. Still, some big names have rolled out the update to popular models — hopefully including the one in your hand.

Read more
How to update apps on Android
Galaxy S20 Plus screen

We all need apps to run properly for us, regardless of which apps we have on our phones and how often we use them. That's why keeping them updated is vitally important since without installing new versions, our apps may stop working or may end up posing a security threat. Fortunately, this article explains how to update apps on Android. It covers how to update apps on Android individually and how to update them automatically.

Looking for some interesting new apps? Check out our article on the best Android apps available now.
How to manually update apps on Android

Read more
From voice control to Story replies, here’s everything in Snapchat’s big update
snap partner summit 2020 updates lens local lenses landscape copy

Here’s What Happened | Snap Partner Summit 2020

Snapchat will soon respond to your voice and help you find new places to hang out, all inside an app with a new way to navigate. During the annual Snap Partner Summit on June 11, Snap Inc. announced a long list of new features heading to the app, including several that build on the social network’s fundamentals, from replying to Stories to adding a hashtag-like feature called Topics.

Read more