Snapchat has announced a new policy to charge users who store more than 5 GB of their photos and videos in the ‘Memories’ feature. This policy is being implemented worldwide, under which users will have to pay a subscription fee for additional storage.
According to the company, the base package for 100 GB of storage will be $ 1.99 per month, while the 250 GB storage package will be included in the Snapchat Plus plan for $ 3.99 per month. Prices for the UK will be announced later. Users who exceed the 5GB limit will be given 12 months of temporary storage so they can either subscribe or download their data.
Snapchat says more than a trillion Memories have been saved since its Memories feature was introduced in 2016. The feature allows users to permanently save posts that disappear after 24 hours and reshare them later, and the company says the move to a paid model will allow it to invest more in the feature.
The company acknowledged that the switch from free to a paid model is not easy, but said that the cost will be “worth it” for heavy users. Snap says most users will not be affected because their Memories data is less than 5GB.
Snapchat’s decision has also been criticized online. Many users said they had years of data stored and that the new policy would cost them dearly. Critics have also accused Snap of ‘greed’.
The move is part of Snapchat’s strategy to introduce more paid services. The company recently introduced a Lens Plus subscription for $9 per month. According to experts, the trend of charging for storage on social media platforms is inevitable because nowadays users post less but save more data.
Snapchat had said in April that its number of monthly active users had exceeded 900 million, while Instagram and TikTok are ahead in this field with billions of users.
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