Snapping Up Feedback: How Snapchat Secretly Eats Its Own Dog Food

•5 min read
dogfoodingsnapchatsnap incsoftware developmentbeta testingproduct developmentapp developmentcompany cultureinnovation

In the hyper-competitive landscape of social media, staying ahead means relentless innovation and a deep understanding of the user experience. For Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, this involves a crucial, though famously guarded, practice: "eating your own dog food." While the specifics are often shrouded in secrecy, it's known that Snap employees actively test and use unreleased versions of Snapchat, a process vital for refining features before they reach millions of users worldwide.

The Internal Lens: Dogfooding at Snap

Like many tech giants, Snap leverages its own workforce as a first line of defense against bugs and a source of invaluable feedback on new features. As Business Insider Africa reported, Snap maintains a strong culture of secrecy around its product development. This extends to its dogfooding practices, where access to internal, pre-release features is tightly controlled, even among its own staff, to prevent leaks. When employees do get access to these builds, they are often met with warning messages, underscoring the confidential nature of this early testing.

This internal usage allows Snap to:

  • Identify and Fix Bugs Early: Employees using the app in their daily lives can uncover issues in real-world scenarios that automated testing might miss.
  • Gauge Feature Usability: Internal teams can provide immediate feedback on how intuitive or cumbersome new functionalities are.
  • Foster a Sense of Ownership: When employees use and critique the product they're building, it can lead to a stronger sense of ownership and a drive for higher quality.

While detailed public accounts of specific features born directly from employee-only dogfooding are scarce due to this secrecy, the practice is an undeniable component of their development cycle.

Beyond the Yellow Ghost: Public Beta Programs

Supplementing its internal efforts, Snapchat also runs a public beta program. This allows enthusiastic users, or "real bug hunters" as Snapchat Support calls them, to test new Snapchat features before they're widely available. Platforms like TestingCatalog provide insights into how users can join these beta programs for both Android and iOS (via TestFlight).

A key feature for beta testers is "Shake to Report," which is enabled by default. This simple gesture allows testers to quickly report bugs or make suggestions, streamlining the feedback process directly within the app. This broader user testing helps Snap gather diverse perspectives and identify issues across a wider range of devices and usage patterns than internal testing alone might cover.

Cultivating Innovation: The Snap Culture

Snap's company culture, which emphasizes being "Kind, Smart & Creative," also plays a role in fostering an environment where product iteration can thrive. A unique, if somewhat unconventional, example is the "presentation test" revealed by CEO Evan Spiegel, as reported by SightsIn Plus. New hires, particularly designers, are challenged on their first day to present a novel idea without prior company context. Spiegel’s rationale is that "Ninety-nine percent of ideas are not good — but 1% is... And the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas."

While not direct product dogfooding, this practice encourages creative thinking, risk-taking, and an acceptance of initial "failure" as part of the innovation process. Such a mindset is crucial for a successful dogfooding culture, where employees need to feel empowered to critique and suggest radical changes to the product.

When Feedback Loops Falter: The 2018 Redesign

No company gets it right every time, and Snap is no exception. The controversial Snapchat redesign rolled out in February 2018 serves as a significant case study. This update, which aimed to separate friend content from publisher content, was met with widespread user backlash, negatively impacting user satisfaction and even leading to a decline in app store ratings, as documented in research hosted on ScholarSpace by the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

While it's difficult to say from the outside how extensively this specific redesign was dogfooded internally or what the internal feedback was, the public reaction underscored a critical point: even with internal testing, misalignment with broader user expectations can occur. Some analyses, like one on DEXA, suggest the redesign may have been rushed and lacked sufficient external user feedback and clear communication before launch. This highlights that dogfooding, while valuable, is most effective when part of a larger strategy that includes diverse user research and phased rollouts for major changes. It serves as a reminder that internal employee perspectives, while crucial, may not always mirror the entire user base.

The Way Forward: Iteration and User Focus

Snapchat's journey with dogfooding is a blend of secretive internal testing and more open public beta programs. The company’s emphasis on innovation and a creative culture encourages employees to think like users and contribute to the product's evolution. Feedback mechanisms are built into the app, facilitating a flow of information from testers back to the development teams.

While the infamous 2018 redesign shows that even diligent internal processes don't guarantee a universally loved outcome, the practice of "eating your own dog food" remains a cornerstone of how tech companies like Snap strive to build better, more engaging products. By continuously using and critiquing Snapchat from within, Snap employees play a vital, if often unseen, role in shaping the platform for its millions of users globally.