Products · Product
Snapchat
Raised as a usability problem by 190 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 113 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Interface is undiscoverable, so people can't work out how to use itUnreviewed
20102026- Tap and swipe actions are hidden, with no visual cue that the screen is swipeable2025-05-27
- Interface is confusing to use2024-06-12
- Features are deliberately hidden so users must search out or stumble on them2023-11-16
Android app lags so badly that it is hard to useUnreviewed
20102026- App is painfully slow on phone; redesign made it worse until user quit2019-01-16
- Android app gives a horrible user experience on mid-level phones2018-08-23
- Extremely slow and laggy UI makes the Android app hard to use2018-08-23
Camera takes several seconds to start, missing key momentsUnreviewed
20102026- Camera takes several seconds to start, so users miss key moments2019-11-12
- Camera opens on the first screen, adding delay to opening the camera2017-02-08
- Camera takes 10+ seconds to open and swiping is very slow2016-10-06
Messages vanish with no option to keep themUnreviewed
20102026- Messages vanish unpredictably, making communication hard for regular people2022-07-22
- Messages vanish with no option to keep them, making conversations hard to retain2019-03-06
- Previous messages vanish, so users lose track of the conversation2016-06-03
App opens in camera mode rather than where people expectUnreviewed
20102026- Interface feels anti-intuitive and weird; app opens in camera mode annoyingly2022-07-18
- The Android camera experience is crappy and hard to use2017-11-29
- Opens to the camera instead of stories, and the UI is bizarre and confusing2017-04-13
Hard to find people without their exact screen nameUnreviewed
20102026- Hard to find people without already knowing their exact screen name2019-01-29
- Users can't find or discover profiles except by typing exact usernames or scanning codes2016-11-15
- Hard to find people without knowing their exact screen name2016-03-05
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Scrolling up unexpectedly opens a profile instead of the next clip2026-07-08
- People put up with poor UX because friends use them2025-11-20
- Can't navigate the Stories section and no hint how it works2025-11-08
- Tap and swipe actions are hidden, with no visual cue that the screen is swipeable2025-05-27
- Forced AI bot sits at top of list, users accidentally open it by muscle memory2025-01-17
- Can't disable the TikTok-style feed in Snapchat2024-10-14
- Interface is confusing to use2024-06-12
- Gets lost in confusing corners of the app and must force close2024-06-12
- Gets moved into autoplaying TikTok-style videos after friends stories, with no warning2024-06-03
- Notification settings reset on the other device, so notifications get turned back on2024-02-29
- App is annoying to use, though it kept friends hooked2024-02-07
- Frequent UI redesigns force users to relearn how to post2024-01-12
- Features are deliberately hidden so users must search out or stumble on them2023-11-16
- Notifications flooded with marketing, can't separate them from messages2023-10-01
- Early app's features were arcane and hard to figure out without being shown2023-09-28
- Interface is unintuitive for users2023-07-04
- Describes the app as having abysmal usability, without saying what goes wrong2023-04-25
- Forced UI redesign that users hate, plus location sharing turned on by default2023-04-24
- Features deliberately hidden so the interface is hard to figure out2022-12-25
- Messages vanish unpredictably, making communication hard for regular people2022-07-22
- Can't reset password or update email/number without already knowing the password2022-07-19
- Interface feels anti-intuitive and weird; app opens in camera mode annoyingly2022-07-18
- App is unintuitive and confusing, working like a separate language2022-05-21
- Can't delete phone number from account without adding a new one2022-04-22
- App feels very complicated and cluttered to the commenter2022-04-22
- Early app was so unintuitive people had to show friends how features worked2022-04-22
- Can't decline spam friend requests from notifications, only accept them, forcing app opens2022-04-22
- Confusing dark patterns and cameras switching on automatically during use2022-04-01
- Hidden filters feature makes the user feel dumb and unable to find it2022-03-30
- Too many buttons and hidden menus behind swipe gestures, so it is unclear where things are2022-03-15
- Confusing and unintuitive design keeps some people off the platform2022-01-20
- Re-prompts for contact access every launch after being repeatedly declined, a dark pattern2021-04-19
- Features built to confuse non-teens and hide their activity2021-02-24
- Snapchat's redesign was extremely controversial and its UX was notoriously bad2020-08-10
- Commenter finds the app confusing and frustrating to use2020-03-07
- Interface is deliberately opaque, so users must puzzle out how it works2020-03-07
- Snapchat's interface is barely usable, according to the commenter2020-02-28
- App crashes every time it is opened after an update2020-02-14
- Hard to figure out how to do things; actions hidden behind non-obvious gestures2019-12-03
- Camera takes several seconds to start, so users miss key moments2019-11-12
- Features are hard to discover because they're hidden behind swipes or unlabeled buttons2019-09-23
- Finds the app extremely difficult to use and not intuitive2019-09-23
- Features are hard to discover, so users stumble on ways to do things by accident2019-09-23
- Snap Map is nigh undiscoverable; user couldn't figure out how to access it2019-09-23
- Interface is terrible and undiscoverable, hard for users to figure out2019-09-23
- Navigation makes no sense and users get lost in hidden features2019-07-25
- Filter runs at about 0.5fps, making it very hard to use2019-05-14
- Filters are hidden behind holding down on the face, so users can't find them2019-05-14
- Messages vanish with no option to keep them, making conversations hard to retain2019-03-06
- Features were hidden behind invisible swipes, so users couldn't tell they existed2019-01-29