Snapchat Brings Back the Missed 'Best Friends' Feature

Snapchat has been making a slew of changes to its app recently, and one of the most controversial has been the removal of the 'Best Friends' feature, which was stripped from the app last Wednesday, causing a subsequent backlash on social media from countless teenagers who obviously adored the removed feature. Apparently the Snapchat developers were paying attention, because they've announced plans to bring the feature back into the app in the next major update.

But Why Remove it in the First Place?

The recently reinstated 'Best Friends' feature lets other users see who you consider to be your “best friends.” Making this type of information about users readily available could be a privacy concern, and many have complained that the feature gives stalkers too much of an edge. So, as a matter of privacy, Snapchat originally opted to remove this feature a couple weeks ago, but after seeing how many users were fond of it, they've made the wise decision to bring it back. After all, as the old saying goes: “If it ain't broke, then don't fix it.”

Then again, from a security and privacy standpoint, the developers were right to consider the feature a potential risk, and removing it was not necessarily a bad move. At the very least, they've learned how much the feature means to their user-base, and may therefore make an effort to improve the feature's functionality and privacy attributes with new settings and preferences.

Who Really Wanted This Feature Back Though?

There are two likely possibilities in regard to the motive behind so many people wanting to have the feature re-instated: a) there were a lot of users that really loved their best friends and want to share it with the world, or b) there are a lot of crazy ex-girlfriends, nosy girlfriends, and other mischievous individuals that were highly upset by their inability to sneakily uncover who their ex has become “besties” with.

We're willing to bet that the majority of users who filed a complaint about the removal of the Best Friends feature were of the nosy/stalker orientation, as it is hard to imagine that so many people would insist to publicly display the names of their best friends, versus the likelihood that some very resentful and nosy people were disappointed by their newfound lack of snooping capabilities on Snapchat.

Then there's also the third probable crowd of teenagers that want all their peers to know “who is who” and “who is not” in their eyes. On second thought, we could see how a feature like this would be missed amongst the high-school demographic, which obviously takes up a huge portion of Snapchat's user base.