With Snapchat’s expansion into short film and video game territories, Android users would be forgiven for feeling as though the company had forgotten about them in recent months. Thankfully, that’s all about to change as the long-promised Android rebuild of Snapchat has finally launched.
In comparison to its Apple iOS counterpart, Snapchat for Android has often presented many issues from its sluggish performance to a range of app-breaking bugs. CEO Evan Spiegel revealed that a complete rebuild was in the works as far back as 2017, stating in February that the company was preparing to launch before the end of the year.
While many would have expected parent company Snap to unveil the news at its Partner Summit 2019 just last week, Snapchat instead revealed the good news on its official Twitter account on Monday. The cute little GIF heralds a new dawn for Android users, who should have automatically received the update yesterday.
To @Android. Love, Snapchat. #SnapForAndroid pic.twitter.com/MGOFQYa9Cj
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) April 8, 2019
Snapchat representatives have revealed to Android Authority that this is an entire from-the-ground-up rework of the application that has been tested on a plethora of Android devices. Although the application is lighter and “faster,” Snapchat remains almost identical, at least until the company decides to do another controversial overhaul of its user interface.
This is the company’s latest effort to stablise Snapchat’s user base, which has in turn helped to secure Snap shares. Officials are hoping that the newfound traction could help growth in international markets and better combat rivals such as Instagram, Facebook and the likes.
KitGuru Says: It seems as though many Android users have already jumped from Snapchat onto other platforms, but is this enough to bring them back? Admittedly, the application does feel significantly smoother than before, although some might struggle to find reasons to return if their friends have already moved on.