Snapchat sees a spike in 1-star reviews in the US App Store as users pan My AI, its GPT-powered chatbot feature that launched to all users globally on April 19
Context & Ripple Effects
Snap launched My AI in late February as a paid perk for Snapchat+ subscribers, then on April 20 pushed it out free to every user worldwide — adding group-chat placement, AR filter and place recommendations, and a promise of photo generation (free rollout to all users). The move converted a feature subscribers opted into a default everyone got, pinned to the chat tab.
The App Store backlash is the market's verdict on that default: users who never asked for a GPT-powered chatbot are rating the app down over it, less than a week after the global expansion.
First-order effects
- Snapchat's US App Store rating takes an immediate hit as users who received My AI involuntarily pan it in reviews — the fastest feedback channel available to people who can't easily opt out of the pinned feature.
- Snap's framing of My AI shifts from subscriber value-add to a liability it must defend publicly, days after touting the expansion.
Second-order effects
- Snap is pushing monetization of the very feature users are rejecting: within two weeks it began testing sponsored links inside My AI conversations, meaning ad revenue now depends on engagement the reviews say users resent.
- By June Snap plans to use My AI interactions to personalize ads across the platform (ad personalization from chat data), raising the stakes — the backlash targets not just a feature but the data engine being built on it.
Third-order effects
- The episode previews the structural tension of consumer-AI distribution: platforms with massive install bases have an edge shipping GPT-powered features, but forcing them on unwilling users converts brand equity into store-rating damage that no launch announcement offsets.
- If the pattern holds, chatbot rollouts get gated behind opt-ins rather than defaults — a reversal of the free-to-all strategy Snap chose in April.
The trend: Consumer social apps are racing to embed OpenAI-style chatbots for engagement and ad-data upside, discovering that mandatory placement trades goodwill for reach.