Anecdotal obviously, but I’m barely outside this demographic at 22. I can tell you that nobody around my age in NYC uses snap anymore. In fact, it’s looked at with shock or disdain if someone mentions that they opened it for one reason or another.
I have a high school aged daughter and Snapchat is the messaging platform of choice among the kids at her school. It is not just a local thing. She also participates in a sport which has her travel across the US frequently for competitions. All the teens at these competitions also seem to use Snapchat as their primary messaging app. When she meets competitors from other places that she wants to stay in touch with it is Snapchat ids that they exchange.
I have relatives in age 17-20 and they use snapchat a lot, and have not abandoned it for something newer and cooler. Some use tiktok, but I think it's more for entertainment. Snap is for connecting with their real life friends. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it has the least churn in its category.
Social media company perceptions are skewed by hype cycles. For instance, snap has more DAUs than Twitter (plus bots likely inflate Twitters numbers more), but everyone talks about Twitter as if it's a giant that everyone uses. It's important to look at the data sometimes, and not just high profile drama.
I do not see the same behavior among this age group/younger, I see many people give out their snap in lieu of giving out their phone number to strangers, I've seen snap become more of a non-committal peer-to-peer temporary messaging app with people met in a casual setting (ie dating apps)
I know people in high school and early college who are using Snap heavily, even over Instagram. In fact, many of them have zero Instagram posts and simply use it as a group messenger.
