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Comment by toasterlovin | Hacker News Reader

> Especially Snap's, as I don't remember anyone complaining about the interface.

Surely you’re joking? I make software for a living and I was utterly and completely lost in Snapchat. Easily the most confusing software I’ve used in a long time.

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I think he’s referring to Snapchat’s initial UI around 2013. This was the best UI - one single list of all your sent & received snaps and that’s it. No stories, no “discover”, no bullshit. Just double tap on any contact you want to send a snap to and you’re good to go.

There was also this lovely feature where you could see anyone’s “best friends” (aka who’s banging who).

As someone who’s Snapchat’s target market I greatly miss all of that. After they ruined the app I deleted my account and never looked back.

You were not snaps target user

Indeed. Similar to how young people will read books while their parents barely finish the sensational short articles in a newspaper. They seem to be more willing to figure things out, especially combined with their tribal actions like going to great lengths to make sure that everything they wear is black, or has a certain logo on it, or that they only listen to particular music. If a particular social app has a gate, then it can be all the better for them. [1]

Not to say that making your app unnecessarily annoying is grounds for success! There were probably 500 apps on the very same day as Snapchat launched that you never heard about.

[1] No peer reviewed study or anything. Just, you know, kids.

Very good points. That idea of creating something for kids that others are not/not willing to figure out, is really fascinating. Probably happens most of the time unintentionally.

I am both aware of that and completely unbothered by it. I was responding to a specific claim about how easy the app was to use.

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