Snapchat ١٢+

Snapchat used to be a handy, fun messaging system to keep up with your friends. Now, the push for an ever-increasing market cap has resulted in the addition of many disgusting new features. For example, if I want to send a snap to someone, about 20% of the time, one of the filters automatically applies to the photo. I do not want to use filters, almost ever, but the app automatically navigates to that menu. Often, when I try to navigate to my friends list, the next button over which leads to the sponsored filters is magically activated despite my not pressing it. More recently, Snapchat premium opt-in appears at the top of my friends list every time I open the app, and when I hit the x to get rid of that or the “try snapchat on your computer”, it mysteriously pulls up the menu and tries to force me to read it anyway instead of dismissing. And now, for the cherry on top, a chatbot that appears without asking, does not have the option to opt out, is obviously there to harvest user data - I say this because it is in fact disclosed explicitly - and is permanently at the top of your friends list. Disgusting. I’m not even asking for full interface customization. All I want is to only have the actions I take occur and be allowed to opt out of features I do not want.

The my AI feature is the worst update to Snapchat since the god awful explore page. This is something that nobody wanted, nobody asked for, yet still it is here and pinned above all of your real conversations. To make matters worse, there is no option to remove block or unpin the AI unless you pay for the premium. Why? Snapchat+ utilizes a disgraceful business model which takes previously free features in the app (such as pinning people/convos) and hiding them behind a paywall. It offers you literally nothing for your money and inconveniences non-paying users. Naturally, hardly anyone buys the premium. So what do they do to incentivize people to buy it? They add this annoying AI chatbot to the app—which NO ONE wanted to begin with—and forcibly pin it above all of your conversations to annoy you into submission and make you fork over the monthly fee for Snapchat+. If I wasn’t so angry at the developers for this absurd decision, I may have actually caved and spent the money just to remove the useless thing.

This feature has to go, or at least an option needs to added that allows users to remove it. It would have made much more sense to include this new feature for ONLY Snapchat+ members but as I stated, the Snapchat developers choose to annoy users into giving them money by actively degrading the platform—rather than providing an experience that is actually worth the money.

remember the good old days, when bitmojis were 2D, and nobody was complaining? the sky was blue, the birds would chirp, the sun would shine. it makes me teary eyed when i reminisce about the 2D bitmojis. it was all we knew. but then came snapchat, coming in and ruining everything with the simple push of a button. who in their right mind thinks that these 3D bitmoji updates were good. i want to know who proposed this very idea, and i want to know if they are mentally stable. i want to know what really happened in that board room when they proposed this big idea. look, I get you guys over at snapchat like to be technologically advanced or whatever, but the last 2 bitmoji updates have economically set us back by 15 years. now let’s not forget the first update. it was a transition from 2D to 3D. sure it was odd, but we had time to get used to it. it wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t new, and as a community we had accepted it. then, just like that, the already weird looking bitmojis turn weirder. nobody knew what to think. it made my self-image go down, knowing this abomination of a character is what people associate with me now. now, you may be thinking that i’m overreacting, but i think i am being perfectly sensible right now. i think it’s time to stand up for change. let’s change those bitmojis back to 2D, because remember, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.