Snapchat’s new My AI feature is not sitting well with users.
Earlier this month, the company made its My AI feature available to all users of the popular social media app. It initially launched the AI chatbot as a Snapchat+ exclusive feature in February, but then changed gears and released it to all users in April. My AI, which is powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology, was marketed as a tool that people could use to get gift ideas or plan a trip.
My AI can recommend birthday gift ideas for your BFF, plan a hiking trip for a long weekend, suggest a recipe for dinner, or even write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed pal. Make My AI your own by giving it a name and customizing the wallpaper for your Chat.
While it’s nice to get free stuff, Snapchat has placed the feature at the top of everyone’s chat. Users cannot remove the feature from the top of their chat list… unless they pay for Snapchat+. It’s an incredible change. First, you couldn’t get the feature unless you paid for it. Now, you can’t get rid of it unless you pay.
As reported by TechCrunch, Snapchat has been getting review-bombed on the App Store in response to the change. According to data from Sensor Tower and Apptopia, the average rating of the app over the last week has been 1.67, largely driven by feedback over the My AI feature.
Over the past week, Snapchat’s average U.S. App Store review was 1.67, with 75% of reviews being one-star, according to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. For comparison, across Q1 2023, the Snapchat average U.S. App Store review was 3.05, with only 35% of reviews being one-star. The number of daily reviews has also increased by five times over the last week, the firm noted.
Another app data provider, Apptopia, reports a similar trend. Its analysis shows “AI” was the top keyword in Snapchat’s App Store reviews over the past seven days, where it was mentioned 2,973 times. The firm has given the term an “Impact Score” rating of -9.2. This Impact Score is a weighted index that measures the effect a term has on sentiment and ranges from -10 to +10. Apptopia also said that Snapchat received around 3x more one-star ratings than usual on April 20, 2023. That’s the day after the My AI global release was announced.
Snapchat has yet to respond to the feedback and reveal if it is open to changing its approach to My AI. For now, we’re all stuck with it being at the top of our chats. Imagine Apple making Apple Support a mandatory pinned chat at the top of the Messages app. It’s just a bad call.
As Snapchat ventures into the AI chatbot game, we also recently got a first look at the technology that Humane, the mysterious technology startup, is planning to launch.
