Ava Zuyus started using Snapchat in 2013 when she was in fifth grade. By middle school, all of her friends were using it.
“It was cool that you could send something that disappears,” Zuyus, now 15, told Business Insider. “It got to the point that everyone was on Snapchat.”
Of Snapchat’s features to keep users interested in the app, like trophies and high scores, the most successful one is the Snapstreak, which marks the consecutive days you and a friend have exchanged at least one Snapchat with each other. The days are symbolized in the app by a number and fire emoji. The longest Snapstreak on record is nearly four years long.
But those streaks aren’t really communication, Zuyus said. They might just be a picture of the floor, wall, or a blank face with the caption “streak.”
And after years of maintaining these apparently meaningless streaks and racking up new trophies, teens like Zuyus say they’re exhausted by Snapchat.
Now, they’re moving to Instagram, which has integrated Snapchat’s once-novel disappearing photo feature while combining it with the ability to craft a more permanent profile.
A fifth of Gen Zs say they are using Snapchat less, according to a recent Business Insider survey of more than 100 teens across the US.
Studies from Ypulse, a research and marketing firm focused on Gen Z and Millennials, also show a dip in Snapchat usage among 13- to 17-year-olds nationwide.
Currently, 57% of teenagers say they use Snapchat — down from a peak of 64% in August 2017, YPulse chief content officer MaryLeigh Bliss told Business Insider. Daily usage has slipped from 56% in August 2017 to 49%, according to Bliss.
And that’s all added up to serious financial repercussions for Snap Inc., Snapchat’s parent company. Its stock hit a record low in May, after first-quarter earnings were significantly lower than Wall Street estimates.
‘Just tired of it’
Teens told Business Insider that the pressure to maintain Snapchat streaks has driven them from the app.
They said the feature dominated their lives for years, but now the excitement of having a streak of 400 or higher is exhausting and feels “pointless,” as one 16-year-old told Business Insider.
Some of Zuyus’ peers have maintained streaks for years with a dozen or more friends, and they’ve sometimes gone to extreme lengths to keep streaks going. If they went to camp, for example, where they’re not able to access their phones, Zuyus’ classmates would give their log-in information to other friends just to keep their streaks going.
One 17-year-old told Business Insider that Snapchat is “too much work.” A 15-year-old told Business Insider, “Everyone on Snapchat was annoying about ‘streaks.'”
Zuyus said she now uses the app twice a week, at most. Rebecca Lubera, 18, has also moved away from Snapchat.
“The social pressure of everyone seeing what you’ve seen and keeping streaks is too high, so I only use it sporadically if at all,” Lubera told Business Insider.
Ill-fated updates
The decrease of daily users has also been attributed to a redesign that Snapchat released in February.
After a massive rejection by its userbase, Snapchat mostly undid everything in the redesign in May.
“Users felt they had to relearn how to use the app, which was frustrating and confusing,” YPulse chief content officer MaryLeigh Bliss told Business Insider. “We’ve often seen social media platforms struggle with backlash to a redesign, but in Snapchat’s case it seems it actually made some users give up on the app.”
The new design separated the pages of friends’ stories — Snapchats that last up to 24 hours — from celebrity stories. They were previously listed together.
“The new updates hampered the convenient access to my friends and stories,” Joshua Ussery, 18, told Business Insider.
Snapchat versus Instagram
What likely spelled out Snapchat’s downfall among its teen userbase was Instagram’s introduction of disappearing messages and Stories in the summer of 2016, which are videos or photos that are viewable for 24 hours or fewer. Snapchat, which was released in 2011, pioneered Stories in 2013.
Now, Instagram’s Stories feature has twice as many daily viewers (400 million) as the entire Snapchat app (191 million).
Instagram was “quick to copy Snapchat’s once unique features, which means that young users can find the same tools they liked in other places and they’re using them there,” Bliss told Business Insider.
On Instagram, users can create a lasting profile with photos and videos, as well as tap into disappearing content. Teens say they can only do the latter on Snapchat.
And the all-consuming Snapstreaks aren’t helping the app’s cause, some users said.
“I’ve grown to resent the app and the way streaks have made me feel compelled to use it,” tech intern Nick Vega wrote last year.
While this year’s interface redesign was an attempt to salvage the app’s popularity, Snapchat appears to be struggling to stay relevant among teens, who are demanding new and different things from their social media experience.
“Snapchat is just people taking pictures of their faces,” Zuyus told Business Insider. “I feel like Instagram is growing with us. It’s more interactive.”
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