Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc, has announced that Snapchat will get a big design overhaul. He also took a dig at rival platforms – Facebook and Twitter.
Spiegel said that the company is redesigning its app to separate media and social communications, making it easier to use and understand.
The design overhaul will be focused around the separation of a "Discover" page on the right, which displays vetted publisher stories, stories from around the world, or stories from influencers or people you chose to follow.
Facebook and Snapchat have been at loggerheads for a long time now, with the former accused of copying Snapchat in recent times by offering ‘stories’ on Instagram, which was first started off by Snapchat.
The distaste was clearly visible when Spiegel pointed out that the new design for Snapchat will separate content from friends and media.
We think this helps guard against fake news and mindless scrambles for friends or unworthy distractions. The separation takes an important step forward towards strengthening our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media.Evan Spiegel, Co-Founder, Snapchat
Snapchat redesign will begin to roll out to a small percentage of users later this week and will be available to all users on iOS and and Android devices globally in the coming weeks.
Facebook has repeatedly made the headlines for its involvement in spreading fake news, even after Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the efforts were made to eradicate them last year.
Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg Details How Facebook Plans to Fight Fake News
We have been working on the problems related to misinformation. It’s a complex technical problem to fix.Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook in 2016 about fake news
But Spiegel’s claims of Snapchat offering news got a quick counter from Facebook’s head of News Product, Alex Hardiman, who said Snapchat is doing some interesting work for teenagers, and is not much into news.
Snapchat has a different, interesting model where it targets teenagers and is not much into news. Facebook is both and has an altogether different approach where it brings people around news and informationAlex Hardiman, Head - News Product, Facebook
Fake news is a big, ongoing issue that can only be fixed if the editorial processes at big social media houses can get supervised. Twitter recently realised that its verification process was broken, after a slew of profile users were passing on violent messages.
Also Read: Twitter Suspends Verification, Removes ‘Blue-Tick’ from Profiles
Facebook said it would make it easier to report false content, work with third-party verification organisations and journalists on fact-checking efforts, and explore posting warning labels on content that has been flagged as false.
(With IANS inputs)
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