Easy launch of Snapchat app planned for Q1 2025

Snap Inc. says its Snapchat app added 37 million daily active users in the third quarter, bringing its total to 443 million, and that time spent watching content increased 25 percent year over year is.

Revenue was $1.37 billion, up 15 percent year-over-year, while the company posted a net loss of $153 million, a significant improvement from a year ago when losses topped $368 million lay.

“I am proud of the team's progress this quarter, delivering strong community growth and deepening engagement while improving financial performance,” said Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap. “Our investments in AI and AR are enabling new creative experiences for our community and driving innovation across our advertising platform, underpinning our long-term growth opportunities.”

The active user growth comes at a crucial time for Snap, which says it will begin rolling out its new “simple” Snapchat app “no earlier than the first quarter of 2025.” The company says it currently has about 10 million users testing it and that they expect to conduct further testing and iterations before a wider rollout.

The new app aims to improve content discovery by combining Snap and Snapchat Spotlight into a unified video feed and integrating Snap content into chat functionality.

In the letter, the company writes: “We are encouraged by initial test results showing an increase in content engagement among less frequently engaged Snapchat users, as we believe this is an important input for impression growth and which can be increasing reach for advertisers.”

However, the company also warned that engagement metrics on iOS devices are not as positive as on Android devices and that there could be some bumps in the road as the company transitions to the new app.

“While we expect content engagement and demand for the new ad placements to increase over time, many of the changes associated with Simple Snapchat will occur immediately as Snapchatters transition to the new user experience, which poses the risk of short-term disruption “, it says wrote in the letter.

Ultimately, the company expects the new app to increase user engagement and lead to increased advertising revenue.

“By simplifying the experience, we're really doubling down on how people actually use their phones, chat, snap, and view content, which are the three main sites here,” Jim Shepherd, Snapchat director of global creator and content -Partnerships, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview last month. “We really believe that these behaviors reinforce each other.”