Snap credits the Snapchat for Android revamp for its recent success

Historically, Snapchat has always had a less-than-stellar relationship with Android. While the iOS version of the app has always worked flawlessly on Apple’s platform, the Android version of the app has normally been considered the complete opposite, with the app normally regarded as being slow and laggy as well as a constant battery hog that wrecked even higher-end phones. The Android app was also constantly criticized for shooting low-quality pictures in comparison to its iOS counterpart, something that was attributed to the app not using Android’s actual camera APIs but resorting to just taking a screenshot of the viewfinder.

Some people attribute these factors as being the catalysts behind Snapchat’s recent demise, together with the rise of Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories and other established social networks trying to compete with Snapchat and eventually poaching over its target audience. This prompted the people at Snap to roll out a version of Snapchat built from the ground up with Android users in mind. And in our testing, we found that they have indeed delivered and improved by leaps and bounds.

Snapchat and Snap as a company are recently enjoying some newfound success after having a bad 2018, with revenue increasing 48% year-on-year to $388 million and daily active users increasing 8% to 203 million users. But the company is attributing this newfound success to their Android revamp. After all, the app’s actual usage and engagement numbers are increasing mostly on Android. According to Mr. Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, the retention rate of people opening Snapchat for the first time has increased by over 10% compared to the older version, with these new users sending up to 7% more Snaps than with the previous version.

While there are still some people out there who prefer Instagram over Snapchat, it’s clear that Snap’s efforts to improve their app experience for Android users is paying off, both in real-world usage as well as in its balance sheet. Maybe neglecting and ignoring Android users isn’t exactly the best thought process for a cross-platform social app after all.

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