New research reveals how Snapchat uses notifications to manipulate users

Why research Snapchat notifications?

Over the years, there has been a shift from notifications that keep people informed to notifications that grab their attention. Platforms benefit from users staying on their website or app for as long as possible, because they earn revenue from advertising. Therefore, platforms are increasingly using notifications that they can generate infinitely, for example: notifications for recommended content, popular topics, or other suggestions. We have entered an era where platforms compete for our attention, flooding users with notifications.

Some notifications are even misleading users in order to get them to click on it. This constantly distracts users and tempts them to spend more time on their phones than they may actually want.

Bits of Freedom’s earlier research into manipulative design already showed that Snapchat uses recapture notifications (notifications intended to bring users back to the platform) and fake friend notifications (notifications that look like a message from another user, but are not). It also showed that other techniques are used to attract and retain attention, including Snapstreaks, infinite scroll, and personalised recommendations. Together, these techniques create the ideal conditions for excessive smartphone use.

Snapchat is widely used by young people, who may be particularly vulnerable to this practice. This makes it important to further investigate Snapchat’s notifications and gain insight into the impact they have on users so that possible enforcement actions and clear policy advice can be enabled.

Approach and findings of the study

Bits of Freedom conducted a case study in which Snapchat notifications were monitored over a period of six weeks. Six different conditions were applied, based on the frequency at which the app was opened and whether or not accounts were followed. In the first three weeks no accounts were followed. In the first week the app was not opened. In the second week the app was opened only once a day and the researcher scrolled through videos for five minutes, In the third week the app was opened four times a day and each time the researcher scrolled through videos for five minutes. These conditions were repeated in the last three weeks, with the only difference being that ten public accounts were followed. The most notifications appeared in the condition where the researcher did not open the app and did not follow any other accounts.

Some notifications were misleading because they contained false information, appeared to be personal messages from other users, or were incorrectly labelled as time-sensitive. It also became apparent that users cannot influence in-app badges. These are the small red dots that appear on certain icons inside the app that signify that there is something new to see. For example, when users receive a new message, or when there is a new friend request, a red dot appears on those icons in Snapchat.

A qualitative study was also conducted through 13 semi-structured interviews with social media users, including Snapchat users. The results showed that users often find notifications disruptive, particularly if they are about recommended content or content posted by accounts they follow. Therefore, users sometimes turn off notifications altogether. Some users also do so for app-badges, which are the red dots with a number in them, that appear on the app-icons on the home screen of their phone. They like to turn them off because these badges create a sense of unfinished tasks and a cluttered screen.

The notifications displayed did not always match the users’ expectations, which suggests deception. The users sometimes believed the notification was a personal message, when it was in fact content from recommended or followed accounts. They also interpreted some friend suggestions as friend requests.

What does this mean?

The results point to a possible violation of the Digital Services Act, Article 25, on manipulative design on Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs). The results also make it clear that regulation of attention-capturing notifications is necessary and should be included in the Digital Fairness Act, because it gives users more control and autonomy on online platforms.

Bits of Freedom recommends that notifications of online platforms should be disabled by default and that users should be able to indicate which notifications they want to receive per category. These categories should at least include notifications that can be generated by the platform itself at any time (such as suggestions) and in-app badges.

Bits of Freedom have informed Snapchat about the research and will contact the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets to stop Snapchat’s use of misleading notifications. The report will also be sent to policymakers so that they can take the results into account when developing the Digital Fairness Act.

Contribution by: EDRi member, Bits of Freedom