Snapchat redesign puts more focus on Discover and live stories

13 Jul 2015

Snapchat’s layout has been altered to draw more attention to the Discover section, where the picture messaging app’s media partners like CNN, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, People and Vice post content for the popular photo-messaging app’s users.

The changes, announced by Snapchat earlier today (13 July) via Twitter, mean that the updates will now be featured from the app’s Stories tab, which is one swipe to the right of the camera. Discover content could previously be found two swipes to the right of the camera. Weirdly though, the old Discover section has yet to be changed and there’s no way to alter the new placement.

In a statement released to TechCrunch, Snapchat said: “Discover is a platform for publishers to tell great stories. Since we launched, we have been experimenting and learning what content works well. We’re very excited about where we are today and making Discover accessible on our Stories page feels like a natural fit.”

Giving its partners even higher value real estate within the app won’t hurt Snapchat’s value to advertisers. In March it was revealed that the company already charges US$100 per thousand views – twice the average.

First unveiled in January, the Discover tab updates every 24 hours with each ‘channel’ featuring a different story with text and videos.

“Snapchat Discover is a new way to explore stories from different editorial teams,” Snapchat wrote in a blog post announcing the feature. “It’s the result of a collaboration with world-class leaders in media to build a storytelling format that puts the narrative first.”

Dean Van Nguyen was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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