Snapchat Experimenting with TikTok-style Gesture for Content Discovery

Snapchat is looking to capitalize on the possible ban on TikTok in the United States with a new navigation gesture for content discovery that’s very similar to the latter. The company is testing a “new experience” that will allow users to navigate through the public content in the Discover tab of the app by swiping vertically.

The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it is experimenting with this new gesture to help deliver its users a way to explore new content in a more immersive format. The vertical swipe gesture is limited to Snapchat’s Discover tab and not one’s private Stories section. A horizontal swipe in the Discover section will exit it instead of going to the next story.

The company is still in the early stages of testing this gesture and has only rolled out to a small percentage of its user base.

“We’re always experimenting with new ways to bring immersive and engaging content to our mobile-first Snapchat community,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Its clear that Snapchat is testing this new gesture in a bid to get users over from TikTok to its platform. The Chinese social media app was recently banned in India along with 58 other apps and it is also under heavy scrutiny in the United States. It was recently discovered that TikTok was snooping on users’ clipboard data thanks to a change made by Apple in iOS 14. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, was quick to update the app to remove the feature, though this was not the first time it was caught doing this.

READ MORE: iOS 14 Reveals TikTok Was Constantly Reading Users’ Clipboard on iPhone

Since TikTok’s ban, a number of apps have jumped in on the bandwagon to offer a similar experience to get more users onboard their platform. Instagram has rolled out its Reels feature in India to a number of creators, with YouTube also testing a TikTok-like short video service.

[Via TechCrunch]

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