Hacker ApprovedDepartments

Snapchat

Ranked 18 of 31 social networks by recommenders

People praise Snapchat's polished user experience and its feature design, which others copy. The most common caveat is harm to teens, from addictive streaks, algorithms and risky messaging.

People praise Snapchat's polished user experience and its feature design, which others copy. The most common caveat is harm to teens, from addictive streaks, algorithms and risky messaging.

66 people gave an opinion

recommend it
12
criticize it
54
approval share
18%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 9 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: not recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Polished, pixel-perfect user experience

    “every one of them is pixel perfect, with insane amounts of time spent perfecting the user experience”

    Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

    “Snap is the greatest innovator of user experiences in this generation.”

    Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”
  • Feature style others copy

    “There's a reason Snapchat sorta developed this feature style”

    Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Vehicle Motion Cues”

    “He copied Snapchat multiple times.”

    Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Meta's Embrace of A.I. Is Making Its Employees Miserable”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Harms teens' mental health

    “Hooking (primarily underage) people onto "daily streaks" of sharing (often inappropriate) pictures of themselves”

    Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots”

    “filled with predatory algorithms that have shown to have negative affect on the mental health of teens”

    Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban”

    “You absolutely can attribute teen suicides especially in girls to Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat”

    Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from Social Media”
  • Privacy and data collection concerns

    “Messengers like Snapchat and WhatsApp; despite "end-to-end" encryption (for WhatsApp) they are sending copy of some messages based on keywords to authorities”

    Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Apple fixes bug that cops used to extract deleted chat messages from iPhones”

    “avoid snapchat, instagram, facebook, and the other platforms that promise you that they read 100% of your conversations”

    Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Student teacher arrested for private Snapchat message”

    “Snap's data collection became so comprehensive that states are comparing them to a government entity”

    Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Snap Wants to be a State Actor??–Kansas v. Snap”
  • Age verification seen as intrusive

    “I hope that Discord, Twitch and Snapchat will die soon after introducing verification of adult persons.”

    Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass”

    “I opened Snapchat for 5 mins in Australia (on a trip there) and now it's demanding I prove my age.”

    Comment from 20 Jan 2026 in “UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s”
  • Early Android camera took screenshots

    “instead of taking photos, the Android app used to essentially take a screenshot of the camera view”

    Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

    “half-assed picture taking so hard that it did so by simply snapshotting the camera preview”

    Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

Other social networks people recommend

The four most recommended other social networks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Snapchat compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Bluesky31740144%121 yr5 owners—
Facebook2891,33818%1314 yrs42 owners—
Mastodon27322055%123 yrs12 owners—
X (formerly Twitter)26498421%1313 yrs13 owners—
SnapchatThis page125418%9——
See all 31 social networks, ranked

What people said

40 of the 71 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“I don't use Snap, so is Anthropic's 2nd largest customer improving Snapchat? I doubt it.”

MixedComment from 8 Oct 2026 in “Meta and Microsoft take steps to reduce employee usage of Claude AI”

“Snap's data collection became so comprehensive that states are comparing them to a government entity”

CriticizesComment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Snap Wants to be a State Actor??–Kansas v. Snap”

“avoid snapchat, instagram, facebook, and the other platforms that promise you that they read 100% of your conversations”

CriticizesComment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Student teacher arrested for private Snapchat message”

“Inappropriate messages offering the illusion of privacy was the entire point of Snapchat.”

CriticizesComment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Student teacher arrested for private Snapchat message”

“She did not realize anything on private is still read by AI and law enforcement.”

CriticizesComment from 31 Aug 2026 in “In less than a year, Google made scraping 10× harder”

“Hooking (primarily underage) people onto "daily streaks" of sharing (often inappropriate) pictures of themselves”

CriticizesComment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots”

“Their entire color story was really cool at the time.”

RecommendsComment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots”

“You absolutely can attribute teen suicides especially in girls to Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat”

CriticizesComment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from Social Media”

“Brain-rot algorithmic short-form video feeds where even the most aware adult can easily get lost for hours.”

CriticizesComment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Meta Ordered to Pay $942M to Address Harm to Kids from Social Media”

“Use apps like Snapchat to ensure they are who they say they are”

RecommendsComment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Online Friends Are Real Friends”

“Snapchat is loaded to the brim with spyware, spam, scams, and automated surveillance.”

CriticizesComment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Teacher Sent a Private Snapchat Complaining…Police Pulled Up to Her School”

“There's a reason Snapchat sorta developed this feature style”

MixedComment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Vehicle Motion Cues”

“there is no way to disable the infinite scrolling reel nonsense in Snapchat”

CriticizesComment from 14 Jul 2026 in “The infinite scroll may become endangered if controversial Calif. law passes”

“a bunch of companies can’t stop running algorithms to drive up engagement”

CriticizesComment from 9 Jul 2026 in “What Does a 13-Year-Old See on Snapchat in a Normal Week?”

“Meta, Snapchat and various games like Roblox could wipe this issue out of existent today if they wanted to.”

CriticizesComment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Opening up 'Zero-Knowledge Proof' technology to promote privacy in age assurance”

“they have love hate relationships with all of those”

MixedComment from 19 Jun 2026 in “The UK's New Under-16 Social Media Ban Will Cause More Harm Than It Prevents”

“Snapchat has to be the all time worst offender to me about abusive level of notifications.”

CriticizesComment from 27 May 2026 in “What Apple and Google are doing to your push notifications”

“He copied Snapchat multiple times.”

MixedComment from 10 May 2026 in “Meta's Embrace of A.I. Is Making Its Employees Miserable”

“I still won't let install snapchat and every other crap app she asks for.”

CriticizesComment from 5 May 2026 in “Kids bypass age verification with fake moustaches”

“Meta/ByteDance/Snap/YouTube have f*ed it up, and this is why we can't have nice things.”

CriticizesComment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Norway Set to Become Latest Country to Ban Social Media for Under 16s”

“Messengers like Snapchat and WhatsApp; despite "end-to-end" encryption (for WhatsApp) they are sending copy of some messages based on keywords to authorities”

CriticizesComment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Apple fixes bug that cops used to extract deleted chat messages from iPhones”

“our children's minds are being shaped not by family or tradition but by the algorithms of TikTok and Snapchat”

CriticizesComment from 19 Mar 2026 in “A rogue AI led to a serious security incident at Meta”

“Social media is too generous term to use when describing products from Meta, TikTok, Snap, X etc.”

CriticizesComment from 19 Mar 2026 in “World Happiness Report 2026”

“Snapchat makes you wait three days after initiating a delete request before you can”

CriticizesComment from 28 Feb 2026 in “OpenAI – How to delete your account”

“the stuff they tried to make me view was completely and utterly disgusting”

CriticizesComment from 21 Feb 2026 in “Facebook is absolutely cooked”

“I hope that Discord, Twitch and Snapchat will die soon after introducing verification of adult persons.”

CriticizesComment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass”

“k-ID is (at first glance) extracting fairly similar data from Snapchat, Twitch etc.”

CriticizesComment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass”

“Talking to random people in their prime years is now 'weird'. But it's perfectly fine if it's via 'insta' or 'snap'.”

CriticizesComment from 10 Feb 2026 in “The US is flirting with its first-ever population decline”

“I opened Snapchat for 5 mins in Australia (on a trip there) and now it's demanding I prove my age.”

CriticizesComment from 20 Jan 2026 in “UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s”

“I seem to avoid all the fake news because its just friends on snapchat.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Use Social Media Mindfully”

“Snapchat features are blood money, they also result in less people using Snapchat”

CriticizesComment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Publish (On Your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere”

“Your desktop site is by far the most mainstream website I've come across that lies like this”

CriticizesComment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?”

“filled with predatory algorithms that have shown to have negative affect on the mental health of teens”

CriticizesComment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban”

“"Quitting" social media was one of the healthiest adult choices I ever made”

CriticizesComment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban”

“everybody uses FB Messenger or, even worse, Snapchat”

MixedComment from 19 Nov 2025 in “I just want working RCS messaging”

“half-assed picture taking so hard that it did so by simply snapshotting the camera preview”

CriticizesComment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

“It's a really wonky app. ... I can't navigate that at all, there a no hint to how it works”

CriticizesComment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

“Snap is the greatest innovator of user experiences in this generation.”

RecommendsComment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

“every one of them is pixel perfect, with insane amounts of time spent perfecting the user experience”

RecommendsComment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

“instead of taking photos, the Android app used to essentially take a screenshot of the camera view”

CriticizesComment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.