Approximately 73-percent of Snapchat’s Android and iOS reviews in February were of the one-star variety, data compiled by app market intelligence firm Apptopia shows. Android users reviewing the app looked somewhat more favorably on its controversial redesign than their iOS peers, with “only” 62-percent of their ratings given this month being entirely negative. The revamped version of the app prompted significant public backlash since becoming more widely available in recent weeks, with hundreds of thousands of users even signing a petition against Snap’s “annoying” design change.
Despite the influx of one-star ratings observed on both the Google Play Store and Apple’s iOS App Store, Snapchat has been doing reasonably well in recent times and actually managed to grow its user base, Apptopia’s data shows. Snapchat’s number of daily active users in the United States increased by seven percentage points this month alone and jumped one-percent globally over the same 17-day period. In terms of actual numbers, the ephemeral messaging service so far added more than a million daily active American users in February, as measured by Apptopia’s analytics platform. The findings are in line with Snap’s recent financial report that claimed the Venice, Los Angeles-based company managed to add nearly nine million people to its platform in the final quarter of 2017. Over the last 30 days, people aged 35 to 50 increased their Snapchat presence and now account for 17-percent of the app’s user base. At this point last month, the same demographic made up 13-percent of its users, according to the analytics firm.
Even though Snapchat is reportedly continuing to grow, its polarizing redesign is still affecting its standing on two of the most popular app stores on the planet. While nearly three out of four people who reviewed it so far in February gave the app a one-star score, such dismal feedback only makes up 12.6-percent of its lifetime ratings, according to Apptopia. Snap has no intention of rolling back the old design of its interface, with CEO Evan Spiegel recently concluding the new version of the app works because celebrities aren’t your friends. The company will soon be celebrating its first anniversary on the public market, having concluded the last calendar year with a quarterly loss of $350 million, its best financial period to date.