Snapchat has joined the growing list of social media apps to offer a paid membership tier with the release of Snapchat Plus.
The app announced the launch of the new subscription service this week, not long after rumours of a paid Snapchat tier had originally begun circulating.
Snap describes the service as “a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features available in Snapchat” which you can access for $3.99 a month.
According to a report by The Verge, this includes the ability to change the style of the app’s icon, see who re-watched your story and pin a friend to the top of your chat list using the BFF pin feature.
Some of these features will be shared with free users later down the line, while the more “single-playerish” ones will remain Plus-exclusive, with the BFF pin fitting into the second category.
Interestingly, Snap made little mention of ads in the press release which is usually one of the biggest allures to paying more for a more premium social media or streaming tier.
SVP of Product Jacob Andreou also told The Verge that “ads are going to be at the core of our business model for the long term”, which certainly makes it sound as though they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Rather, Snap appears to be looking to expand its revenue beyond the ads it currently slots between Stories.
Taking in paid users will also allow Snap to offer new features to its most passionate members and provide prioritised support for those users, the company explained in the press release.
Snapchat Plus has already begun rolling out, with users in the UK, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the UAE among the first welcomed to sign on to the subscription service.
Snapchat joins apps like Twitter and YouTube who already offer premium subscriptions to users with services like Twitter Blue and YouTube Premium.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
