Over the years, Snapchat has evolved from the simple app used to send pictures and short messages that it began as,. Now a multi-purpose app with the capability to save photos and videos, post stories for friends to see, read online magazine articles, identify songs and much more, it is an app that 158 million people have downloaded worldwide.

As one of the most prevalent social media sites in daily life, the updates for the app affect many people. Past updates have brought positive improvements to the app, such as the creation of geofilters for different cities and locations, the ability for users to create their own “stickers” to add to their photos and facial recognition filters. However, the app update unveiled on Feb. 8 was not one that the public took kindly to.

“I think I’m going to email them, actually, because it’s really that bad,” said sophomore Reagan Holton.

The update removed the page of stories entirely, mixing in the public posts that last 24 hours with singular snapchats intended for only the user. This makes the app more cluttered and more difficult to watch stories from anyone that the user doesn’t regularly communicate with on the app.

“The new Snapchat is just like Forever 21,” said West Forsyth senior Hannah Hedrick. “All over the place.”

Previously, app users have been open to change in the hopes that their experience will improve with each new update. However, this time the change went a few steps too far for many people.

“I really hate how they’ve changed things around,” sophomore Nic Kanampiu said.

Some of the main complaints have been the lack of cohesion the app now has, and how difficult it is to find anything.

“The update makes me stressed out trying to use the app,” said sophomore Grace Haselden. “I feel like a depressed elder trying to figure out rocket science. I hope that it is just a phase.”

Snapchat users on Twitter have been avidly protesting against the update, trying to petition against the change and harassing the Snapchat Online Support twitter page. Tweets calling for a reversion to the old Snapchat have hundreds of thousands of retweets, and there are more every day. It says something that there has been not one single positive review of the update anywhere online.

People have lost interest in posting stories because no one views them as much as they used to, due to the fact that users find it difficult to locate where their friends have uploaded stories.

“I used to get over three hundred views on my stories, and now I barely get one hundred, if I’m lucky,” Hedrick said. “Not that I can blame people, I can’t ever see everyone’s stories. It makes me wonder all the things I’m missing out on and not seeing that people have posted. It makes stories a lot less effective.”

However, the loathed update has not caused a lack of use on Snapchat. Instead, users continue to spend time on the app, and are slowly (though grudgingly) learning to adjust to the new ways to use the app.

“It’s terrible,” said sophomore Gabriel Hollingsworth. “But I hope they don’t change it back now, because I’m used to it.”