Snapchat Redesigns Its App to Separate the Social from the Media. Here’s What That Means

Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc., announced in a video Wednesday morning that the company has redesigned the app to keep friends and professional content separate, otherwise “separating social and media.”

“Separating social from media has allowed us to build the best way to communicate with friends and the best way to watch great content – while addressing many of the problems that plague the Internet today,” according to a press release where Spiegel’s video announcement was featured.

Snapchat’s redesign still opens with the camera feature making it easily accessible for taking a picture or video. But chats and stories are still available by swiping to the left, while the Discover section will still feature content from publishers and professional accounts on the right.

Snapchat’s redesign also includes “dynamic friends page,” which you can access to the left of the camera along with chats and stories. It will be organized “in the order that you want to talk to them,” according to the press release. The page will use a more sophisticated version of the Best Friends algorithm to eliminate the need to scroll and search for people you talk to often. Snapchat noted that the redesigned algorithm will take a while to learn how to organize the list.

As part of Snap’s redesign, the new Snapchat Discover page on the right side of the camera will also show other Snapchat accounts you subscribe to at the top and eventually bring more personalized content higher up on the page.

The Snapchat update will be released to selected users before coming to all users, according to Metro.