Snapception: Snapchat is redesigning its redesign

Snapchat is still trying to recover from the backlash against its controversial redesign it announced last year. Now it appears, via Recode, that the company is slowly starting to reintroduce aspects of the previous design, as it has begun testing user-generated Stories appearing on the Discover page, which is where they used to be.

To be clear, this is only a test; thus, only certain users will see the change for now. However, since the changes to the Stories section of Snapchat are some of the primary reasons why people dislike the redesign so much, it seems likely that this test will result in a broad rollout.

Snap really doesn’t have much choice in the matter when it comes to fixing the much-loathed redesign, since it has caused a significant drop in user interaction with the app. A solitary tweet from Kylie Jenner about her distaste for the redesign reportedly caused a $1.3 billion drop in stock for the company back in February. It’s unlikely that Snap will come right out and say, “We screwed up,” but it certainly needs to fix the mess it’s in.

To its credit, a spokesperson laid out the reasoning behind this new Stories revamp, and it seems pretty reasonable: “We are always listening to our community and will continue to test updates that we hope will give Snapchatters the best possible experience on our platform.”

Credit where credit is due: Snapchat is listening to your criticism of the redesign and trying to make it right. But don’t hold your breath for a full rollback to the previous design; the changes were made for a reason.

Whatever Snap’s plans might be to bring back user growth and increase interaction with the app, it better get the ball rolling soon. As it stands, Instagram is doing Snapchat better than Snapchat, and the clock is ticking.

NEXT: Snapchat group video chat is here, Instagram will do it better soon (probably)