Remember Snapchat’s once popular (and controversial) Speed filter? Snapchat has announced that it will discontinue the Speed filter. Snapchat claims the Speed filter’s popularity dropped in the recent past and was ‘barely used.’

The Speed Filter on Snapchat allowed users to record and share the speed at which they were moving. As expected, the filter raised safety concerns. As a result, some users started posting Snapchat while driving recklessly at high speed. More often than not, using smartphones while driving ends up in disaster. Till now, Snapchat has fought off multiple lawsuits asking to remove the feature.

In the wake of lawsuits, Snapchat did make some changes to the Speed Filter. They added a “Dont Snap and drive” warning sign and added a speed limit of 35mph. Perhaps this is the reason behind Speed filter’s declining popularity.

Snap has defended the feature in the face of warnings from safety advocates who’ve argued that it encourages reckless driving. The company has also faced lawsuits from the families of those who have been injured or killed in car crashes where drivers were moving at excessive speeds, allegedly to score bragging rights on the app.

Snapchat has faced lawsuits from crash victims’ families. The lawsuit alleges that the feature encourages users to speed while using their phones. Furthermore, the Speed Filter ended up as a “bragging right” for many users.

Our Take

It is not clear whether Snapchat finally conceded defeat to multiple lawsuits against the Speed filter. Or, as they claim popularity of the filter could have declined. Snapchat has started removing the feature this week, and soon the Speed filter will cease to exist.