Out of nowhere, Snapchat users are seeing a red dot on their home screen, and they’re looking for answers. The Snap-owned social app keeps adding new features for users. Most recently, Snapchat released My AI to all users. However, along with the features, Snapchat also makes certain changes to how the app looks, and every now and then, these changes cause confusion among users.
The newest modification in the Snapchat app is the red notification dot. Some users have started noticing several red dots on the app’s home page, appearing on the chat, friends, Spotlight, and Memories icons while in camera view. They occupy the same spot as the blue dots, but what do they mean? Well, as part of its recent update, Snapchat replaced the blue notification dots with the new red ones.
Here’s What The Red Snapchat Dots Mean
The red dot on the chat, friends, Spotlight, or Memories button simply means that users have received a new notification in that particular section. It could be a new Snap, a friend request, or a creator’s post that could make red dots appear on users’ home screens. The function of the dot hasn’t changed, only the color.
Snapchat hasn’t announced the change, but its My AI chatbot had some insights to share on the matter. Upon asking Snapchat’s My AI why the app changed the notification dot’s color from blue to red, the chatbot replies, “Snapchat changes the color of notification dot to make it more noticeable and to help users identify new notifications more easily.” Telling the chatbot that blue was equally good at that, it replies, “Snapchat may have decided to change the color for aesthetic reasons or to make the app look more modern.“
It might take some time to get used to, but the red notification dot might be better at grabbing users’ attention. Since it’s a non-customizable part of the app, users cannot change the color of the notification dots back to blue. Other social media apps like Instagram and Facebook also use red dots to display new messages and other notifications. So, in a way, the red dot on Snapchat makes the app more consistent with other apps.
