Snapchat Now Has More Users on Android Than iPhone

Snap announced its financial results for Q1 2021, which reveals that Snapchat is now more popular among Android users than on iPhone. The company had 280 million daily active users in the first quarter of 2021, with most of them accessing the social media platform from an Android device instead of an iPhone.

Snapchat also saw its daily active user base increase by 51 million to 280 million, up 22% year-on-year. Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel attributed this to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the company's investment in new content.

Snapchat’s Android App Got a Major Redesign in 2019

Snapchat first launched as an iPhone exclusive app in 2011, with the Android version of the app launching in 2012. However, that app was notably inferior to its iOS version. Despite multiple updates, Snapchat for Android continued to offer a sub-par experience compared to its iOS counterpart.

In 2019, Snapchat released a new Android app built from the ground up that delivered the same experience as its iPhone app. It is the work of that redesign and Snap's focus on original content that the social media platform now has more daily active users on Android than iOS.

In its quarterly financial results announcement, Snap did not provide a breakdown of how many daily active users it had on Android vs. iPhone. The company did note, however, that its daily active users were up yearly on both platforms.

The Verge reports that Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel called it a "critical milestone" for the company, which shows the "long-term value of the investment we made to rebuild our Android application."

Snap Investing More in Original Content

The growth in daily active users has also led Snapchat to invest more in original content and further expand its availability. The company expanded the availability of Spotlight, its TikTok rival, to India, Brazil, and Mexico, thereby making it available in 14 countries. It also launched a record 321 channels in Q1 2021 across 12 countries. Additionally, Snapchat launched its first original show in India, "Phone Swap."

Markets outside of the United States have fueled Snapchat's growth in recent quarters, so it is not surprising that the platform now has more Android users than iPhone. The company saw a 5% increase in daily active users in the United States in Q1 2021, with the rest of the world accounting for a 57% increase.

Android smartphones are prevalent in Asian markets like India, where there are over a billion smartphone users, with over 90% of them using an Android device. Other social media platforms like Clubhouse, which continue to be available only on iOS, should keep this in mind as they end up missing out on a large chunk of smartphone users due to this exclusivity.

source https://www.makeuseof.com/snapchat-more-users-android-than-iphone/