Snapchat is back – and with Spotlight, it’s bringing out a new feature that presents the community’s most creative snaps in a dedicated feed. Video creators can even win money. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about Snapchat Spotlight.
Instagram has been copying Snapchat in a bad way for the past few years. But the stories feature that made Snapchat so popular is no longer a unique selling point of the Facebook subsidiary. In the meantime, even Twitter has released its own story feature called Fleets.
Snapchat made a comeback in 2020 with another feature. The social network has remained intimate and has not, like Instagram, become a mass medium that companies and large corporations use as a marketing platform.
While Instagram is now focused on mass appeal and advertising, Snapchat, like Tik Tok, continues to focus on user-generated content. To this end, the company has now announced a new feature: Snapchat Spotlight.
What is Snapchat Spotlight?
Snapchat Spotlight puts the community’s best snaps in the spotlight in a dedicated feed – regardless of who created them. The feature is very similar to Tik Tok, because it shows up to 60 seconds long videos or Spotlight snapshots.
When you tap Spotlight in the app, you see all the snapshots that the platform has compiled using an algorithm.
How do I get into Snapchat Spotlight?
The new feature is community driven. You don’t need a public profile to get into Spotlight. If you want to join a snapshot, just select “Spotlight” on the “Send To” screen.
The company writes that Spotlight “allows you to share the best snaps created by the community” – for example, how often other users access your snap. So your post will appear in Spotlight when it is well received by the community.
What makes the format so special?
To make Spotlight more attractive to users, Snapchat offers a financial reward. The best snaps receive a payment of more than one million US dollars, which the company distributes every day.
Which video creator gets how much depends on how often a snap was viewed compared to others, how many likes it got and how often it was skipped.
Snaps must also comply with content policies and terms and conditions. In addition, creators must be at least 16 years old.
What makes Spotlight different from Tik Tok?
Spotlight is very much like Tik Tok or Instagram Reels. Snapchat eventually recreates a feed that consists of short videos only. This was Tik Tok’s unique selling point until Instagram copied this strategy with reels.
The content consists mostly of entertaining dances, challenges or comedy videos. Snapchat seems to hit a similar notch. Unlike Tik Tok and Instagram Reels, however, users cannot publicly comment on Spotlight Snaps.
Even the video creators behind the snaps remain private by default. “We created Spotlight to entertain our community,” Snapchat writes.
“The values of Snapchat are central to this and we are committed to making sure our community is doing well. Spotlight content is moderated and cannot be publicly commented on.”
In addition, Snapchat animates its users with the daily prize money to engage in a kind of creative competition. This is something the other platforms do not offer so far.
If you like, Snapchat also copies the successful model of Tik Tok. Unlike Instagram, however, the company has come up with its own functions that make the feature interesting for Snapchat users.
Why is Spotlight a change for Snapchat?
Spotlight will be available in eleven countries – including Germany. With this feature, Snapchat wants to challenge the creativity of its users and lower the hurdle for content creation.
Twitter is pursuing a similar intention with the new fleets. It seems to be a current trend to actively encourage users to post and interact more.
Spotlight is a change for Snapchat for this reason. The company wants to focus even more on user-generated content.
The platform beckons for this with two rewards that satisfy the need for attention. On the one hand, it seems attractive to be financially rewarded for creative Snaps. On the other hand, many users will feel appreciated when their snaps appear in Spotlight.
