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Snapchat has adjusted its “solar system” feature following a recent Wall Street Journal report that said it was adding to teens’ anxiety.The feature works as a ranking system of sorts and shows users how close they are to others using a photo of the solar system. In the image, your friend is the sun and your Bitmoji avatar will display on a planet representing how close you are to that person. The idea being that the person with the Mercury position is a closer friend than the one on Neptune, the WSJ notes.It’s not a numerical ranking, nor is it visible to other users; however, Snapchat acknowledges that “even though it can feel good to know you are close to someone, it can also feel bad to know that you aren’t as close to a friend as you’d like to be.”In response, Snapchat is turning the feature off by default. If a user wants more friendship insights they can turn it on, but those who don’t want it can ignore the feature entirely.“We hope this strikes the right balance between providing a feature that is desired by many who use it while avoiding upsetting those who don’t want to use it,” Snapchat said in a blog post.
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The Solar System feature is only available to paid Snapchat+ subscribers. Snapchat says it’s currently used by less than 0.25% of its community each day.
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