Snap also debuted "Snap Map" location sharing feature today: https://www.snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-the-snap-ma...
Snapchat is one of my absolute "I'm getting old" triggers.
I absolutely cannot use it.
The app may have a notification-bubble on it, but when I start I have to swipe left and right randomly for a given period of time, until I finally, -for whatever reason-, land on a page where I can click the thing which caused the notification.
Why swiping left or right should "logically" lead to whatever it leads, I cannot tell. Often I find myself wanting to go -back- from some deeply nested screen, and to do that I have to swipe from right to left (as in "drag" the app -forwards-). WTF?
And now this. You can zoom out from a screen you never zoomed in to. Because that's clearly obvious.
This whole app is a UX disaster of proportions. I absolutely cannot see the appeal, nor how this app gained such a wide user-base.
Every time I accidentally side-swipe when trying to scroll (about one on five times or so) and land on some obscure functionality I have no reason why I'm being lead into, I'm getting one inch closer to just deleting the app and using whatever dumbed down web-version exists instead.
Can't we please have the big clicky buttons back? Anything except these "magical" swipes and gestures, seemingly only introduced by some weird cargo-cult "gestures are intuitive" following.
At least none of those web-versions has stupid "intuitive" gesture-based navigation and random side-swiping bullshit. And that makes them 100x more usable IMO.
As a UX designer, I think that Snapchat did this on purpose. They know that "the olds" will grow frustrated with the UI and won't use it, but they know that the younger crowd who have grown up with mobile interfaces and their accompanying interaction patterns (tap, swipe to reveal hidden items, long press to reveal hidden items, etc) will know how to navigate around the app and are willing to put up with the UI flaws.
This has two valuable results (at least from Snapchat's point of view):
1) Older people won't use it, which makes the younger generation perceive it as a safe space from their elders.
2) Advertisers are guaranteed a pool of younger users who have disposable income.
As for the appeal of Snapchat, it really lowers the cognitive barrier for updating people about your life. Personally, I spend more time curating items that I post on Facebook as it feels more permanent, but on Snapchat there isn't that pressure as the picture will disappear in 10 seconds or less.