Snapchat update brings in a revamped Discover and Live tab; lets you subscribe to channels

Snapchat has been rolling out updates  at a regular basis this year. No doubt it is currently one of the hottest apps around, something that is even making Facebook blatantly copy Snapchat’s features on a regular basis. In its latest update on Android and iOS, Snapchat has a revamped look for its publisher section for the Discover and Live segments.

Earlier Live stories and Discover stories were shown as a carousel of circular icons - with the Live tab having a graphical image of the topic under discussion and the Discover tab having a matrix of circular icons, each just showing the name of the Snapchat approved publication.  With the latest update, that circular shape has changed to a rectangular one, thereby using up all the available screen real estate. Also instead of just getting the name of the publication, you now you get additions in the form of a cover image for the publication along with a brief headline of that story. Honestly, it has made the discover feature a lot more insightful now since you know at a glance what each of the publisher has in store.  This update will definitely increase the probability of hitting on the channel, as you get a glance of what you may see. It is a much better implementation than the opaque one before where you could only see what stories the publisher had after you tapped on the publisher.  Holding on to a particular publisher prompts a basic bio of the publisher along with the option for you to Subscribe to one. Once you are subscribed to a publisher, you will get stories from the publisher under your Recent Updates tab. Even Live stories have shifted beneath the Subscriptions now. Apart from the revamp of the Discover tab, there have also been minor design changes for the control icons on Snapchat. For instance the chat button, download button, add to snapstory buttons have all got a much thicker borders. The send (arrow) button has got a more flatter design language as well.