Snapchat will soon redesign its Discover section, reports say
Snapchat is getting ready to redesign a big section of its app.
The company will soon roll out a redesigned version of its Discover page, according to multiple reports. The new design will reportedly ditch the current look for a tiled design similar to Instagram's feed.
First reported by Venture Beat last month, users could see the new design within the next week.
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The new look for Discover, which features content from Snapchat's publishing partners (including Mashable), will apparently allow publishers to create custom cover images for their channels, rather than the current design which simply features publication logos on circular icons. The new cover images will be used to tease content within each channel in order to "draw readers into the content," according to Digiday.
It doesn't sound like the content itself will change much, but Snapchat is hoping the new look will attract more of the app's 150 million daily active users to the section. First launched at the start of 2015, Snapchat's Discover section has been growing, though reports suggest not all Discover advertisers and publishers have been achieving the massive reach they hoped for.
Snapchat is hoping the new look will attract more of the app's 150 million daily active users to its publisher partners
On one hand, Snapchat engagement appears to be better than ever: The app now boasts more users than Twitter and those users are watching 10 billion videos a day, according to Bloomberg. But users' stories, which are not directly monetized through advertising, account for a large portion of those views.
On the other hand, publishers on Discover do sell ads against their content. And though ad rates have reportedly risen in recent weeks, publisher engagement has been inconsistent. As Digiday notes, some channels, like Cosmopolitan's, attract millions of users a day while other channels see only a fraction of that traffic.
But as Snapchat -- now more valuable than ever -- increasingly positions itself as more of an entertainment company than just a messaging app, it will need to keep its media partners happy. And refreshing Discover so its content is more alluring to users could be a good start
Editor's note: Mashable is a part of Snapchat's Discover platform. No editorial staff involved with Discover worked on this article.
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Topics Snapchat Social Media
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
