Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has said that mass negative feedback from users over Snapchats redesign only serves to “validate” the changes to the app, and that users will soon adjust to the new features and layout.

Speaking to investors at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference on Thursday, Spiegel said that he personally prefers the new version, which he believes brings “more clarity to the service”.

According to Spiegel, the primary aim of the redesign was to distinguish between content created by media companies, celebrities and brands, and communications shared between friends.

“Wed been thinking about the redesign for a really long time because we were frustrated that when you looked at the [app], both sides looked the same,” said Spiegel. “Were excited about what were seeing so far. Even the complaints were seeing reinforce the philosophy. The frustrations were seeing really validate those changes.”

The update has been met with widespread critcism from the apps user base, with many saying that the redesign reduces the sense of intimacy created by having content from celebrities appear in the same stream as their personal messages.

A petition on Change.org claims that following the update “there is a general level of annoyance among users and many have decided to use a VPN app, or are using other risky apps or steps, to go back to the old Snapchat”. The petition, which calls for the update to be removed, has received over 1m signatures.