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Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

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Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#41

Post by Crosseye_Jack »

rconti wrote: post #33
verall wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's almost certainly going to be faster (thumb to save latency) to run the camera in video mode and then snatch a frame when the user hits the button than the normal preview-stillshot way the phone takes pics natively. Cell phone OEMs differentiate with camera quality and so some run some pretty heavy post processing to make images come out okay. Snap probably cares more about quickly taking picture and the fil…

I wasn't under the impression that the difference of 1s in latency was a major problem for the Snap userbase. Do I misunderstand the product?

Iirc the issue comes down to Android. Until very recently there was not real uniform api for accessing the camera between Android versions and the tweaks hardware vendors make. Basically it was much easier to screenshot the live preview then access the raw camera data.

This changed a couple of versions a go and if you used SnapChat on the pixel 2 it used the new APIs instead of taking a screenshot.

But I can’t comment persoanally on the quality of snapchats pictures as I’ve never used it.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#42

Post by manigandham »

sowhatquestion wrote: post #24
bigfartchili wrote: post #6

This feels like what happened to digg. Reddit did their redesign right. Many people hated it and they gave the option to go to the old reddit immediately after the new version was released.

Honest question: what's so bad about the reddit redesign?

It's very slow and unresponsive. Any time saved with not having to reload the page is wasted several times over in the clunky UI, and the lags in loading data still remain.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#43

Post by verall »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #36
verall wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's almost certainly going to be faster (thumb to save latency) to run the camera in video mode and then snatch a frame when the user hits the button than the normal preview-stillshot way the phone takes pics natively. Cell phone OEMs differentiate with camera quality and so some run some pretty heavy post processing to make images come out okay. Snap probably cares more about quickly taking picture and the fil…

Why is the latency of concern in Snapchat but not anywhere else? The native camera app isn't slow on modern phones.

Latency is a concern on the native apps too, but as tradeoffs go, cell OEMs care about mag/site reviews and "it takes a little longer to take a capture" buried deep in the text will be worth much less than better-looking example photos in the side by side.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#44

Post by verall »

rconti wrote: post #33
verall wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's almost certainly going to be faster (thumb to save latency) to run the camera in video mode and then snatch a frame when the user hits the button than the normal preview-stillshot way the phone takes pics natively. Cell phone OEMs differentiate with camera quality and so some run some pretty heavy post processing to make images come out okay. Snap probably cares more about quickly taking picture and the fil…

I wasn't under the impression that the difference of 1s in latency was a major problem for the Snap userbase. Do I misunderstand the product?

If you've ever taken a selfie before, it feels weird to freeze your smile pose for even a full second. People taking a selfie want to touch the button when they see their face look natural in the preview and they want it to save instantly.

And, depending on phone (esp budget android) it really can take up to like 2s for a still to go off.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#46

Post by EvilTerran »

Intermernet wrote: post #23
hinata wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they made it so smooth, too - just replace www with old! Considering, too, their incredible API, I have a lot of respect for the Reddit developers.

Not on mobile. I don't want to install the app, and the mobile site is basically a bunch of dark patterns piled on deliberately broken functionality. It's amazingly, and consciously terrible.

I use the old mobile site, it's fantastically light-weight: https://i.reddit.com

You can change the subdomain to "i" on any reddit page, or access the same version by adding ".compact" to the end of the regular URL (which can be more convenient, thanks to the ".com" button on mobile keyboards): https://www.reddit.com/.compact, https://www.reddit.com/r/CatsStandingUp/comments/7bcm79/cat/..., etc

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#47

Post by dom96 »

icelancer wrote: post #22
bigfartchili wrote: post #6

This feels like what happened to digg. Reddit did their redesign right. Many people hated it and they gave the option to go to the old reddit immediately after the new version was released.

Yeah the reddit redesign is horrific. Thankfully, they keep old.reddit.com up and will maintain it indefinitely, which I'll use... also indefinitely.

I also despise the new redesign. As much as I love them for allowing the option to stick with the old design I'm not sure how "indefinite" support actually means, for example subreddit designs are split between the new and old. Eventually subreddit admins won't bother to support both.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#48

Post by Rjevski »

toasterlovin wrote: post #12
turndown wrote: post #11

I will never understand the desire to radically change an interface on any product <10 years old. Especially Snap's, as I don't remember anyone complaining about the interface. Instead, why not make your app use less battery power and improve the camera's functionality? Those types of improvement are universally appreciated, yet the least likely to be implemented.

> Especially Snap's, as I don't remember anyone complaining about the interface. Surely you’re joking? I make software for a living and I was utterly and completely lost in Snapchat. Easily the most confusing software I’ve used in a long time.

I think he’s referring to Snapchat’s initial UI around 2013. This was the best UI - one single list of all your sent & received snaps and that’s it. No stories, no “discover”, no bullshit. Just double tap on any contact you want to send a snap to and you’re good to go.

There was also this lovely feature where you could see anyone’s “best friends” (aka who’s banging who).

As someone who’s Snapchat’s target market I greatly miss all of that. After they ruined the app I deleted my account and never looked back.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#49

Post by Rjevski »

bigfartchili wrote: post #6

This feels like what happened to digg. Reddit did their redesign right. Many people hated it and they gave the option to go to the old reddit immediately after the new version was released.

The new redesign completely melts down my MacBook (2016, so not outdated by any means) every time I try to load a page. It’s loading more shit JavaScript than actual content.

I’m not sure what is it that you find good about the new design? The old one did the job perfectly with the added bonus on working on less powerful machines.

Re: Evan Spiegel’s Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success Until Users Fled

#50

Post by zapzupnz »

xref wrote: post #25
icelancer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fix the abuse problem This has been a problem for about 30 years online, so good luck with all that. > add an edit button User tweets out something nice. 10k retweets. Then changes it to something political.

HN both has an edit button and is not susceptible to your hypothetical. these are solvable problems.

HN also has a stricter set of community guidelines (which aren't in themselves all that strict to start with), more heavily moderated, and a generally well-educated, mature-minded user base that is generally appreciative of these two elements.
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