Snap CEO Evan Spiegel responds to critics of Snapchat's redesign

Hate Snapchat's redesign? Chances are, you're not alone.

Not that it matters much, though, because Snap CEO Evan Spiegel just confirmed that he's not too concerned about the haters.

SEE ALSO:Snap gives influencers analytics as everyone else rages about Snapchat's redesign

Speaking at Goldman Sach's Internet and Technology conference in San Francisco Thursday, the Snap CEO acknowledged that "it will take time for people to adjust," but said he's been very happy with the reaction to the redesign -- even the negative ones.

"We're excited about what we're seeing so far. The best part is that even some of the complaints we're seeing reinforce the philosophy [behind the design]," he said.

"For example, one of the complaints we got was 'Aww...I used to feel like this celebrity was my friend, and now they don't feel like my friend anymore.' And we're like, 'Exactly. They're not your friend.'

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"So for us even some of the frustrations we're seeing really validate those changes."

In other words: all those complaints are a feature, not a bug.

Spiegel's comments come as the backlash against Snapchat's redesign continues to grow. A change.org petition demanding the company reverse its update has now gathered more than 1 million signatures, and the app has earned nearly 200,000 one-star reviews in the App Store in the last couple weeks.

Spiegel also offered some additional context on the philosophy behind the design. The point, he said, was to make a clearer distinction between Snapchat's private communication features (one-to-one snaps and chats) and the public-facing or "broadcast" aspects of the services (Stories).

"We were frustrated that both ides of the camera really looked the same, they were both a list of your friends," he said.

"That didn't make a on of sense because people weren't focused on the way they were communicating, they were focused on the relationship with their friends. We felt very strongly that Stories and communication should rotate around that relationship, not around the media type."

Unfortunately for Spiegel, many of Snapchat's users just don't care about Spiegel's philosophical opinions at all -- they just want to get people looking at their Stories again.

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