Snapchat on Wednesday finally launched its premium version for the Indian users, HT's sister publication Mint reported. Snapchat+, a paid subscription, offers priority based access to exclusive, experimental and pre-launched features to the plus users. The mobile messaging app’s premium subscription comes at a cost of Rs. 49 per month in India, whereas it costs US$3.99/month (around Rs. 320) in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, which are among some of the countries where the feature was released in late June this year.
According to data provided by Statista, Snapchat has its biggest market in India with over 14 crore users, even more than the US. The photo sharing platform has huge traction among youth and snapchat is looking to monetize this market.
The features bundled with the subscription allow exclusive and prioritised experience for its plus users. Here, we take a look at the six paid features announced by Snapchat.
Plus subscribers can get themselves differentiated from normal users by switching on badge feature. It will display Snapchat+ badge on their profile with a Star designation to show that the user has subscribed to the Plus service. The feature is by default inactive and needs to be switched on manually.
The subscription offers users to customise the appearance of the snapchat icons, for which it includes a pack of home screen icons.
{{/usCountry}}The subscription offers users to customise the appearance of the snapchat icons, for which it includes a pack of home screen icons.
{{/usCountry}}A solar system feature as a badge for the Friendship profile is launched in this plus subscription.
There is also a feature for premium users to pin one of their contacts as their best friend.
Through the My Story Management section, the paid subscription allows users to check the number of people who are re-watching their stories. However, this feature does not disclose the specific names of the other users.
Snapchat+ offers a Snap Map feature, a bit similar to Map Moves, to see the general direction of travel to where friends have moved recently. However, to use this feature, which is named as the Ghost Trail feature, users would need to share their location for this feature to be active.