Snapchat announced an in-app newsfeed called Spotlight that will feature ‘the most entertaining snaps’ by people all around the globe. Influencers or anyone who comes up with a snap meaning a short video that has entertaining content with the potential to go viral will be literally in Snapchat’s Spotlight. The entire audience will be able to view the videos on this feed.
While many people are still hooked to keeping their streaks, a significant proportion of the audience lost interest in the app. In a generation where content creation is now a high paying job that is fun at the same time, many social media apps have started paying content creators whose content goes viral and has substantial engagement.
If you think that the entire idea is borrowed, then you are definitely not wrong. The novel newsfeed draws its ‘inspiration’ from the much popular among the people from every age group app, TikTok. Kids, teens, adults, and even the elderly are earning through the app by coming up with witty, informative, and trendy content.
Borrowing another app’s idea is not something new. Instagram’s most popular feature, stories, have been inspired by Snapchat. The popular feature later came to WhatsApp, Facebook too, and Twitter recently joined the gang with Fleets’ introduction. This very feature itself has been used by Instagram; Reels. However, Reels was more of a cross-platform feature allowing the TikTokers to share their videos to Instagram instead of creating one on the latter social media platform.
The announcement further said:
“Submit your best video Snaps to Spotlight for the opportunity to earn a share of more than $1 million that we’re distributing to creators every day!
Or, lean back, watch, and pick your favorites!”
The feature is aimed at providing the content creators an opportunity to earn through it. The snaps app has chosen the same earning model as the rest of the social media platforms; whoever gets the most impressions or goes viral will get a share from the announced $1 million. Anyone can submit their snaps to the feed (just as you can share your personal stories to ‘Our story’). But where Spotlight distincts itself from TikTok is the personal profile realm. People who want to submit their snaps to the Spotlight while keeping their profile private can do that. The snaps would not be subjected to the public comments section as of yet.
Every user will have a Spotlight feed tailored to their interests. The app will start showing you the snaps the algorithm thinks you will enjoy the most. Once you start viewing snaps on Spotlight, your viewing profile for Spotlight will be created.
The rest of the audience will decide the fate of the content on Spotlight. The more views a snap gets, the more popular it will get hence standing a chance to earn.
The content must also follow Snapchat’s content guidelines and terms. In fact, Spotlight has its own set of Spotlight terms to prevent any sort of demeaning content that can spark controversy or instill hate among the users and audience. Further, unlike other snaps, snaps on Spotlight will not disappear unless the creator deletes it. The content creators will be allowed to only use the music from the app’s own music library for their snaps. Posting snaps on Spotlight is the same as sending snaps to friends. Once you create a snap, you will be asked whether you want to share it to Spotlight or simply send it to your friends.
16+ people are allowed to submit content (TikTok allows 13+ teens to share content and earn through it). However, 18+ people will be allowed to have a public profile. The snaps submitted must also be appropriate for a 13+ audience.
The in-app newsfeed is currently available in a few countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, the US, New Zealand, Norway, Ireland, and Germany. The social media platform says it will be expanding the feature to other countries soon.
The app also promises to evolve with the user’s feedback. Let’s see how this new venture goes for both the content creators as well as the app itself.
