It's not just you: Snapchat's best friends feature is no more, at least for now.
The latest Snapchat update, which added a new Discover feature and rearranged the app's settings and contacts menus, also removed the app's ability to see the "best friends" of people in your friends list.
[seealso URL= "http://sale-online.click/2015/01/27/snapchat-discover/"]
While social media users are known to complain about most major updates (remember the freakout over Facebook Messenger), it's the removal of this relatively minor feature, rather than the app's new editorial content, that has users up in arms.
The feature allowed users to view the top three users with whom a friend exchanged messages. The names in your best friends list was determined solely by the number of times you exchanged messages with a particular friend; users couldn't manually control whose names appeared.
This provided the only insight into which friends were exchanging messages on an otherwise private messaging app.
But this list mysteriously vanished with Tuesday's update, and it didn't take long before distraught users took to Twitter to complain about losing a feature that many likened to "stalking."
don't like the new snapchat update bc how am I suppose to creep on people's best friends now
— mel (@melanie_long11) January 28, 2015
I don't like the new snapchat update because when I got bored I would sit there and look through everyone's best friends
— Matilda (@agarlannd) January 27, 2015
Noooo wtf, I don't like the new snapchat update. Not even gonna lie, I actually liked being nosey and looking at people's best friends
— ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ (@mxzzx_) January 27, 2015
Did you hear that? It's the sound of cheating boys exhaling in relief because the new #snapchatupdate doesn't show your best friends anymore
— Ale (@mynameisalesia) January 27, 2015
So let me get this right...you don't like the new snapchat? Just because you can't be a psycho stalker anymore orrrr.....
— Indiana_Angel (@_Indiana_Angel) January 27, 2015
OMG they got rid of viewing people's snapchat best friends? How am I going to jump to conclusions about other people's relationships now?
— Caspar Lee (@Caspar_Lee) January 27, 2015
But what's snapchat without snapchat best friends
— Melina DiMambro (@melinadimambro) January 27, 2015
I don't like that you can't see other people's best friends on the new snapchat update. I'm just so nosey
— Brooklyn (@brooklyn_zubal) January 27, 2015
I don't like this new snapchat .. How am I supposed to stalk people's Besties.
— Jocelyn Murphy (@JocelynMurphyy) January 27, 2015
Don't like this new snapchat, now you can't be creeping on who bae is talking to or see embarrass your friends for talking to a creep
— dont make e friends (@KunTomMCFC) January 27, 2015
Interestingly, the setting for managing best friends still appears in the app's main settings menu -- so it's possible the removal of the feature was unintentional.
UPDATE: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel tweeted on Tuesday that the best friends feature would be coming back soon.
We'll bring back BFs soon. A few higher-profile friends wanted to keep their usernames private - we'll come up with a better way to do that.— Evan Spiegel (@evanspiegel) January 27, 2015
BONUS: How to Become A Professional Snapchat Artist... Oh It's Possible