Snapchat’s My AI chatbot became a source of user complaints soon after the company expanded access beyond subscribers. Many objected to finding it pinned at the top of their Chat feed, where it could not be removed like an ordinary conversation. Others raised concerns about the information it appeared to know and the limited control they had over whether it appeared in the app.
Reviews changed after the wider launch
My AI, powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, had initially been available only to subscribers. After its global release, Snapchat saw a sharp increase in negative App Store reviews and complaints on social media.
Data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower put Snapchat’s average U.S. App Store review at 1.67 over the past week, with 75% of reviews rated one star. Across Q1 2023, the average was 3.05, and 35% of reviews were one-star. The number of daily reviews also increased by five times over the past week.
Apptopia reported a similar pattern. Its analysis found that “AI” was the top keyword in Snapchat’s App Store reviews over the past seven days, mentioned 2,973 times. The firm assigned the term an “Impact Score” of -9.2 on a scale ranging from -10 to +10. Apptopia also said Snapchat received around 3x more one-star ratings than usual on April 20, 2023, the day after the global release was announced.
One-star reviews later began to ease, but remained elevated. The numbers also do not capture every complaint: Sensor Tower’s chart showed five-star reviews rising alongside one-star reviews. Some five-star comments still criticized My AI, demanded that it be removed or threatened to lower the rating. The reason for those mismatches was unclear.
Placement left users feeling they had no choice
The chatbot’s location in the app was a central point of frustration. Snapchat pinned My AI to the top of the Chat feed, a space users regularly use to talk with friends. Unlike other conversations, it could not be unpinned, blocked or removed by users who did not want it there.
Some users argued that the feature should have been opt-in, or that Snapchat should provide a way to delete it. Others threatened to leave the app. The pinned chatbot also appeared alongside Snapchat’s existing Team Snapchat chats, leading some users to feel the company was taking more space in a feed they used for personal conversations.
For Snapchat+ subscribers, the company’s documentation said My AI could be unpinned or removed from Chats. Removing it was therefore tied to a paid subscription, which frustrated users who felt they should not have to pay to clear an unwanted addition from their app.
Privacy and safety concerns added to the backlash
Some users were unsettled when My AI appeared to know their location and use it in responses, even when they were not sharing their location on Snap Map. The chatbot brought data collection into a direct interaction, prompting questions about what information it could draw on and whether people had agreed to let the AI use it.
Safety questions had also surfaced during the subscriber-only period. The Washington Post reported that, after being told a user was a 15-year-old, the chatbot suggested ways to mask the smell of alcohol and pot at a birthday party and wrote a school essay. The paper also reported that, when told the user was 13, the bot responded to a question about setting the mood for sex for the first time.
Snap said some people had tried to “trick the chatbot into providing responses that do not conform to our guidelines.” The company then introduced age filters and said parental controls were on the way, but those controls were not available at the time of the public launch, and Snap did not say when they would arrive.
Snapchat pointed users toward feedback
Not everyone objected to My AI, though the source of the review data suggested that ratings alone could be misleading. The volume of complaints in recent App Store reviews and responses to Snapchat’s announcement indicated that many users wanted more control over the chatbot’s presence.
Snapchat declined to comment on the situation, while noting that Snapchat+ users had sent nearly 2 million chats to the AI during early testing. A spokesperson said the company continually iterates on features based on community feedback, but did not commit to removing My AI. The spokesperson’s response to users who disliked it was that they did not have to use it.
The reaction showed that introducing an AI feature into a social app involves more than making a chatbot available. Where it appears, whether users can opt out, and what information it uses all shape how the feature is received.