Snapchat testing large redesign with dark mode and navigation bar

Snapchat is reportedly testing another redesign, The Verge claims. Since the launch of the app, there’s always been three screens – camera, chats and a discover page, and this is set to change with another redesign that’s currently being trialed with a limited group of users.

Like Instagram and other social apps, Snapchat is getting a navigation bar that splits the original three pages into five tabs. From the screenshots, Snap Map has been relocated from a swipe on the main screen to its own tab, and the Discover tab has been redesigned. Community will now house friends stories, alongside subscriptions and followed stories, and Snapchat’s original creations will be housed in the Discover tab.

Snapchat looks to be heavily investing in its own programmes, with an emphasis on original content. They’re also focusing on breaking news stories directly within the app, to go alongside the existing layouts.

It comes just years after Snapchat released a redesign that went down very badly with users, due to the lack of testing. It was soon re-developed, and continually evolved until we were met with the white-focused, material design look that Snapchat sports to this day.

A spokesperson for the company says that “we’re exploring ways to streamline navigation across Snapchat, soliciting feedback from our community to inform future versions of our app”. The new design with apparently offer more space to “innovate” and “discover even more of what Snapchat has to offer”.

Dark mode has long been wanted in Snapchat, and it looks like it could be coming soon, according to the leaked images. We see that the ‘Discover’ page uses a dark grey (but not OLED black) background with white text: a typical dark mode style. We’ll continue to wait for the night-friendly theme to be released publicly.

Currently, the interface looks unfinished and a dark navigation bar with a light user interface doesn’t seem very final, so it’s likely to change. We could also see this idea scrapped altogether, as its only being tested with a “small amount” of users in the United States.

Do you use Snapchat? What do you think about this redesign? Let us know by sending us a message on Instagram or Twitter – we don’t use Snapchat, sorry!

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Ben Ward

Senior Editor, discussing everything Apple and supporting other writers and members of Apple TLD's team of volunteers.

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