- Snapchat has a new "do not disturb" option, which lets you stop notifications from specific people or groups without letting them know you've muted them.
- Snap didn't tell users when it rolled out the feature.
- The update could encourage Snapchat users to check the app more often — or it could help prevent them from continuously checking their phone, a part of recent conversations about smartphone addiction.
Snap has rolled out a "do not disturb" feature that allows Snapchat users to silence notifications from specific people and groups while keeping the muted parties in the dark.
Snapchat users must know the feeling, as the update was released a few weeks ago without any word from the company, TechCrunch's Josh Constine reported Tuesday.
Facebook Messenger and iMessage offer similar tools, inspired by those overly communicative friends who make you regret agreeing to push notifications. An incessantly buzzing phone makes it difficult to get anything done, but turning off all push notifications isn't always good either, so a "do not disturb" option works well as an in-between step.
This tool may also encourage Snapchat users to check the app more often, especially if they don't know how many direct messages they really have — or it could have the opposite effect.
Though Snap wasn't vocal about its release, Snapchat's new feature comes amid more people in the tech industry talking about smartphone addiction. Facebook has promised to address these concerns with updates to its platform, but it hasn't yet announced anything. It's unclear whether Snap's new feature is also a direct response.
On Tuesday, Snap announced its fourth-quarter earnings, which blew past Wall Street's expectations and led the company's stock to take off.
Since its latest earnings call, Snap has rolled out updates to its social-media platform designed to keep it competitive with Facebook's Instagram.
In addition to a design overhaul announced in November, Snap also recently said it would push out new fonts, including neon-glow and rainbow options — a week after Instagram released its highly anticipated Type Mode that gave users new fonts.
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