Snap CEO announces app redesign, takes a dig at Facebook and Twitter over ‘fake news’

Snapchat has a simple solution to the problem of fake news -- it’s going to separate media and social communications feed on its app.

Snap CEO reveals design overhaul (Reuters)

Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, has announced a major redesign for its popular photo-sharing platform. He also took a dig at rivals Facebook and Twitter over the issue of fake news on the social networking platforms.

The company is redesigning its app to separate media and social communications, making it easier to use and understand, Spiegel wrote in an opinion piece in Axios late on Wednesday.

"We think this helps guard against fake news and mindless scrambles for friends or unworthy distractions," Spiegel said, taking a dig at Facebook and Twitter.

"The separation takes 'an important step forward towards strengthening our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media'," he added.

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.

The "Friends" page on the left features updates from close friends and family.

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, reports said. The entire redesign was done in-house, a Snap spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Social media giant Facebook has been accused of copying Snapchat in the past.

Earlier, this week, it started working on a feature similar to Snapchat's "Streaks" which is an addictive game that encourages friends to send messages back and forth for consecutive days.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi, Facebook Head of News Product Alex Hardiman said on Thursday that Snapchat is doing some interesting work for teenagers.

"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 information," she told the gathering at the HT Leadership Summit.