News

Snapchat Opens Qatar Office To Deepen Gulf Presence

The new Doha base anchors Snap’s regional expansion as Qatar steps up its digital and creative drive.

Published

10 months ago

October 28, 2025

snapchat opens qatar office to deepen gulf presence

Snapchat has opened a new office in Doha’s Msheireb district, marking its first base in Qatar and a stronger foothold in the Gulf. Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel joined Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour bin Jabor Al Thani, Director of the Government Communications Office (GCO), at the launch.

The move plants Snap at the center of a market where engagement runs deep. Snapchat users in the Gulf open the app more than 45 times a day, while about 85% use its augmented reality features daily. From the new Doha hub, Snap aims to work more closely with creators, entrepreneurs and local partners as Qatar pushes ahead with its sweeping Vision 2030 goals.

“We welcome Snap Inc.’s expansion in Qatar and its continued contribution to the country’s digital and creative economy,” said Sheikh Jassim, adding: “The office is an important step in strengthening our strategic partnership, which began three years ago and has already achieved significant milestones, particularly in development, training, and support for the creative industry”.

The opening follows Snap’s memorandum of understanding with the GCO signed during Web Summit Qatar in February. That deal paved the way for the country’s first Augmented Reality Academy, designed to train new creators and developers in immersive tech. The program will be open to young innovators across the region, part of a broader push to build skills that feed into Qatar’s growing creative economy.

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Hussein Freijeh, Snap’s Vice President for MENA, said the company is “deepening its roots in a market that celebrates creativity and culture”. The new base also expands opportunities for brands and advertisers looking to reach a digitally active audience through more localized storytelling and AR experiences.

Global platforms are increasingly circling Qatar’s fast-growing digital economy, drawn by its investment in creative industries and infrastructure. For Snap, the Doha office signals a long-term bet on one of the region’s most connected markets — and a platform to anchor future growth across the Gulf.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.