With the third quarter done and dusted, it's time for many companies to reflect and begin planning for 2018. One such organisation under the spotlight is Snap Inc., with its Snapchat app struggling to maintain a steady stream of new users.

It's a factor that CEO Evan Spiegel is acutely aware of, addressing it in a recent letter to investors. Also appearing in his comments was the need to redesign the app amid constant usability issues. Spiegel added that the company is building a new Android version of the app from the ground up, which could also lead to more new sign ups. "One thing we have heard over the years is that Snapchat is difficult to understand or hard to use, and our team has been working on responding to this feedback," notes Spiegel.

In order to address said problems, the CEO alluded to a significant redesign being in the offing. "There is a strong likelihood that the redesign of our application will be disruptive to our business in the short term, and we don’t yet know how the behavior of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application," adds Spiegel.

As such, this change would be more than just a handful of tweaks and fixes, but rather a fundamental rethink into how intuitive the app is to use. Making those kind of changes could indeed yield the increase new sign ups that Snap Inc. will be hoping for, but given how far ahead rival app Instagram has pulled away of late, the redesign needs to happen soon.

When that will happen remains to be seen, with no timeframe outlined for now.