Less than a week after the Wall St. Journal reported that Snapchat's feature called “Solar System” was increasing anxiety among teens, the company is making adjustments to how the feature works. I responded with The current ranking system for paid subscribers shows how close you are to your Snapchat friends by showing them their location in the solar system. For example, a friend with a Mercury position is someone you communicate with often, while a friend with a Uranus position is someone you don't get very close to.
Of course, online chats don't necessarily correlate with real-world relationships, and such features can cause hurt feelings when you realize you're not as close as you thought you were with your friends. .
Snap says its feedback is that it can make you feel good when you know you're close to someone, but it can also make you feel worse when you realize you're not as close as you thought.
“We have heard and understand that the solar system could make you feel even worse, and we want to avoid that,” the company announced in a newsroom post Friday.
But instead of removing this feature, like the dangerous and controversial speed filter that was accused of “negligent design,” Snap will simply turn off the solar system feature by default. Snapchat+ subscribers can turn on the option if they wish.
“We hope this strikes the right balance between providing features that many users want while not upsetting those who don't want to use them,” the company explains.
Turning it off by default may create some friction, but if this feature is already in demand among teens, they'll just look for a setting to turn it back on. Dew.
Snap claims that Solar System is not very popular, noting that less than 0.25% of the community uses this option. However, it is only available to paid subscribers, so no wonder the percentage is small. A more relevant statistic is how many Her Snapchat+ users have used Solar System or viewed the feature.
WSJ reports that users don't know who is closer to their friends and who is further away, but when they realize they're not number one, it can lead to tough conversations and even breakups.
Snap defends the feature by saying people want to know more about their friendships and features like Solar System provide “additional awareness and context.” But in reality, this is a way to get young people (a demographic where social class matters) hooked on using Snapchat.
The Solar System feature was just one part of Snapchat's friend ranking system. It also offers a private feature called “Best Friends,” which puts the people you contact most often at the top of your contact list, along with heart and smiley emojis, the Journal noted.
Another much-discussed feature called “Streaks” is a tool that encourages repeat use of the app by visually displaying how many consecutive days Snapchat users have contacted each other on the app. After much backlash from parents and families, lawmakers and regulators alike over the feature's addictive nature and psychological harm, Snap introduced a way to pause streaks last year. We also added a way for users to restore lost streaks.
Snap promises in a blog post that it is “committed to mitigating the potential downsides of online communications to the extent possible,” but it has intentionally built features and tools that will at least preclude lawsuits and Congressional investigations. May be exposed.