Snapchat is introducing a new feature – Spotlight – that will provide functions similar to Instagram Reels and TikTok. The announcement which was made on Monday detailed what users are to expect from Spotlight. Users will be shown a feed of top snaps. The feed can be navigated through tapping or swiping, but users can keep watching a particular snap if they do not do either since the feature will continue playing videos in a loop, TechCrunch reports.
The new feature will make the Snapchat app more entertaining as users will no longer be limited to snaps from their friends and selected snaps posted in the Discover feature. Now, a variety of snaps from the 249 million users of the app will be available via the Spotlight feature. With an incentive of $1 million available per day, interesting videos will be a prominent part of the new feature.
Snap will be providing users with up to $1million every day for users who submit snaps with a lot of engagements. Snap stated that winners will be determined through a proprietary equation which will also determine how much each user will get based on the number of views which will be compared to snaps with the top number of views.
To be eligible to receive a part of the daily pool, users have to be at least 16 years, Snap said, also stating that the daily payments will continue for the rest of the year. Snap is not the only platform that is willing to pay for users’ creativity. Instagram and TikTok have similar programs where they pay users with a high number of engagements.
The tech company has announced that the Spotlight feature will not have ads at first but projected that ads might be introduced along the line. The first platform which offered users a continuous loop of interesting short videos is Twitter’s Vine which was shut down in 2017. Then came ByteDance’s TikTok and recently, Instagram joined the system in August with Instagram Reels.
A spokesperson of the platform told reporters that the new feature is inspired by similar services being offered on other platforms. Reels, for example, the spokesperson explained inspired the development of Spotlight, so that users of Snapchat will find it very easy to post their videos for the world to see. Snap also explained that a majority of users use the camera available on Snapchat to shoot their TikTok videos.
He continued that Spotlight will however stand out because of its many unique features. The spotlight will not allow comments from the public on the featured snaps. It will also be free of politically motivated content as well as snaps that contain information that can not be verified, the spokesman added.
The new feature will be accessible to users in the US, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, France, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, and Germany at launch, and gradually other regions will be added. The feature can be accessed on the Snapchat app.
Source: techcrunch.com
