Snapchat is changing the way users view content provided by publishers in a major way. The popular ephemeral messaging app released an update that began rolling out on Tuesday, which features a redesign of the app's Live Stories and Discover sections.
The Stories page is where users view recent snaps shared by those they follow, along with the ability to view created content provided in the Live section, which includes current event topics such as "Bernie vs. Hillary" or whatever sports game or awards show is currently on or trending.
Users can also swipe to the left again to bring up the Discover page to see the full list of publishers they could view snaps from, including CNN, Buzzfeed and MTV. These publishers were previously displayed as colorful bubbles that featured their logo.
This page might have gone ignored by many users, but now Snapchat is integrating this section with Live Stories to bring more eyes to the content and help increase publisher's traffic.
Now users will fall in love with Discover and Live all over again now that Snapchat has redesigned these two pages to make them more user friendly while providing a more seamless experience.
The new Snapchat update brings Discover over into the Live page to help highlight the content shared by media companies featured on the app. Now users will see a carousel of content right underneath "My Story," which features images with the name of the publisher and top and headline of the article. This serves as a preview to what users expect to see in Discover when they swipe left.
The update also brings with it a new look for icons for chat and Stories.
While users may dig the new design of these pages, publishers are probably equally pleased now that their content is in the spotlight more. The redesign will help allow publishers to gain more followers and views on the platform since it's now easier for users to potentially subscribe to their channel and be exposed to their new content every day in Recent Stories.
Because of how these sections now look, users may actually want to discover new content.
The app previously launched its Discover section back in January of last year as a way to monetize on the platform through generated ads. Publishers sell ads on their channels and then spots the revenue with Snapchat. The redesign could bring in more earnings for Snapchat if many eyes will come to the page, which could very well be possible, as its user base continues to grow.
Snapchat reportedly has more than 150 daily active users on the platform, which means it now has more daily active users than Twitter.
The new Live and Discover redesign can be seen as part of Snapchat's latest update for iOS and Android.
