Snapchat update: Over 1 million users sign petition calling for return of old design

Over one million people have signed a petition calling on Snapchat to reverse changes to its design.

Last week Snapchat users were shocked to find they could no longer view their friends' snaps and stories by swiping left and instead had to swipe right.

However, Evan Spiegal, the CEO of the social media platform, responded to the anger by telling an audience at the Goldman Sachs Internet and Technology Conference yesterday that people would get used to the changes, according to Tech Crunch.

"Even the complaints we're seeing reinforce the philosophy. Even the frustrations we're seeing really validate those changes. It'll take time for people to adjust, but for me using it for a couple months I feel way more attached to the service", Spiegal said at the conference.

In a blog post, Spiegal explained the new changes were an attempt to tackle fake news.

"While blurring the lines between professional content creators and your friends has been an interesting Internet experiment, it has also produced some strange side-effects (like fake news) and made us feel like we have to perform for our friends rather than just express ourselves", he wrote.

During this time people have shared their frustrations on social media claiming that the update is "pure garbage" as one person said or that they are "deleting the app until it's change dback" as another put it.

One angry Snapchat user wrote a minute-long rap against the redesign, which was retweeted tens of thousands of times.

Nic Rumsey, who set up the petition, wrote that some are using Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps - which are used to mask the location of the device - to access the older Snapchat version: "That's how annoying this update has become," he said.

"Many 'new features' are useless or defeat the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years", he said.