Snap Seeks Deeper Customer Engagement via Simplified Version of Snapchat

In a digital world where simplicity is king, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, introduced a simplified version of Snapchat, organized into three main experiences: communicating with friends, using the camera, and viewing content.

The redesign aims to elevate user engagement and discovery for creators. With about 10 million users, early results show positive impacts, particularly on Android devices, with increased content interaction.

“We’re definitely excited about the long-term opportunity of Simple Snapchat,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told investors Tuesday (Oct. 29) during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

“We have a lot of work to do before we do a broader rollout. It changes the scale and has the potential to be disruptive, and we want our community and environment to benefit from these changes. We’re going to take our time to understand the monetization dynamics. We’re going to keep testing and learning.”

Additionally, the company launched new artificial intelligence (AI) features to encourage creation and strengthen community relationships, such as AI-generated collages in Snapchat Memories, according to the company’s shareholder letter.

Snapchat’s content platform is growing, with a 60% increase in sharing Spotlight content year over year. The company is improving its machine learning models for better content ranking and personalization, and it supports creators through tools and monetization opportunities, resulting in a 50% year-over-year growth in content posting.

Augmented reality (AR) remains a key focus, with more than 375,000 AR creators producing 4 million Lenses, according to the shareholder letter. Notable features include the Past and Future Me AI Lens, viewed over 650 million times. New generative AI tools in Lens Studio aim to simplify AR creation and enhance the developer ecosystem, essential for long-term success.

“We announced a new and simplified version of Snapchat that we believe will further our initiative to grow our community and deepen engagement,” according to the shareholder letter.

“Broadly speaking, Simple Snapchat is driving the greatest content engagement gains among more casual users, which is an important input to community growth and advertising inventory.

“We also announced two new ad placements, Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places, that will provide incremental reach to our advertising partners as they engage with Snapchatters across our service.

“To further our vision for augmented reality computing, we launched the fifth generation of Spectacles, our AR glasses powered by Snap OS, and introduced a series of generative AI innovations for our AR developer platform.”

Snap’s third-quarter financial results saw revenue rise 15%, to $1.37 billion. But Snap incurred a net loss of $153 million, an improvement on last year’s $368 million net loss for the same three-month period.

Daily active users rose 9% during the quarter, to 443 million, while Spotlight reached more than 500 million monthly active users on average, an increase of 21% year over year. More than 1 billion Snaps were shared publicly on Snapchat every month in the third quarter from the community, creators, and media partners.

“I’m proud of the team’s progress this quarter, delivering strong community growth and deepening engagement while driving improved financial performance,” Spiegel stated.

“Our investments in AI and AR are powering new creative experiences for our community and driving innovation across our advertising platform, underpinning our long-term growth opportunity.”