What is Snapchat Plus: A full guide to premium features and privacy

With more than 850 million monthly active users, Snapchat has become an important platform for creative and personal communication. Snapchat Plus, its premium subscription service, takes this type of experience to the next level with exclusive features that provide more user interaction, customization, and safety. This paid version is transforming how users experience the popular social media platform.

This article is intended to offer a guide to Snapchat Plus, its features, subscription costs and value, along with its implications and impacts surrounding teenage users, and how parents can ensure online safety.

What is Snapchat Plus?

Snapchat Plus is a paid premium service of Snapchat that was launched in June 2022. A move from advertising revenue to building direct relationships with its most engaged users through optional paid features.

Rather than overwhelming the app with intrusive ads, Snapchat Plus leverages users’ demand for premium personalization, exclusive features, and early access to try things out.

This model recognizes that a subset of Snapchat’s audience is willing to pay for an asocial media experience with added personalization and insider benefits. More users want greater agency over their digital experiences, from personalizing app aesthetics to gaining insights into their interactions.

Who is Snapchat Plus for?

Snapchat targets a specific audience that sees Snapchat as more than just a casual messaging app. The service is especially useful for.

1. Power users and everyday communicators: Those who spend a lot of time on the platform and engage with friends through snaps and stories will get the most out of it.
2. Personalization enthusiasts: Users who love customizing their digital experience from app icons to chat wallpapers are gonna gravitate toward Snapchat Plus.
3. Content creators or social media influencers: Exclusive badges are great for teens and young adults who want social validation and increased visibility for their story.

Casual users who rarely check Snapchat or just use it occasionally for one-on-one messaging probably won’t find enough value to justify the subscription fee.

The premium features are geared toward those already invested in Snapchat’s ecosystem rather than targeting new and infrequent users.

What does Snapchat Plus do?

Snapchat Plus is designed to enhance personalization, offer social insights, and provide more control over the Snapchat experience.

Here’s a breakdown of each premium feature.

1. Enhanced social insights

These features offer subscribers unique information about their interactions that is not available to standard users.

• Story re-watch indicator. Instead of just seeing who viewed your Story, you get to see how many times certain friends rewatched your Story.
• Pin a BFF. Allows you to add one friend (regardless of your actual interaction numbers) and promote them to the top of your chat feed as your #1 Best Friend.
• Priority story replies. When replying to a public creator’s Story, your reply has a higher priority in their feed. Therefore, the celebrity or creator is more likely to see your message and respond.
• Friends Snapscore. Gives you more information about your friends Snapscores. You can see exactly how their score has risen since your last visit to their profile.

2. Customization and aesthetics (personalization)

These features allow subscribers to make their app look and feel personal, adding an element of exclusivity.

• Custom app icons and themes: It offers a vast library of designs for subscribers to change the Snapchat app icon’s appearance on their home screen. There’s also the option to create their own themes within the app.
• Snapchat Plus badge: A unique black star badge will appear next to the subscriber’s display name on their profile. It’s a status symbol that marks a user as a paid Snapchat Plus member.
• Custom notification sounds: let users set unique sounds for specific friends or group chats. This is to make it easier for them to tell who messaged without looking at the phone.
• Bitmoji backgrounds: Exclusive backgrounds for subscribers. Bitmoji avatar, offering even more creative, high-end profile looks.

3. Utility and early access

These properties offer functional advantages and provide a “first look” at the platform’s development.

• Custom story expiration: Snapchat Plus subscribers can set their Stories to expire after a specified amount of time, such as 1 hour, 1 week, or any time in between.
• Story boost – A boost that a subscriber can use for a single private or public Story for 24 hours each week. This gives the Story a prime spot in friends’ feeds, making it highly visible and worth watching.
• Ghost mode (on Snap Map) lets Snap Map subscribers view their friends’ past locations from the last 24 hours. This is only if the friend has location sharing enabled.
• Early access to features. Subscribers are given access to new, experimental, or artificially intelligent-powered tools before they are launched to the masses.

How much is Snapchat Plus?

‌Snapchat Plus is available in a tiered subscription model where users can select the plan that suits their budget and level of commitment.

Here’s a breakdown of the cost of Snapchat’s premium tier, Snapchat Plus.

• Monthly subscription ($3.99). The monthly plan provides the greatest freedom, as users can try Snapchat Plus without committing to a long-term plan.
• 6-Month subscription ($21.99). The six-month plan offers a slight discount, saving users around 8% over monthly payers.
• Annual subscription ($29.99). The yearly plan is the best value, offering significant savings of almost 37% from the monthly rate.

The service is offered in most countries where Snapchat is available. But the pricing may differ slightly due to currency conversions and regional economic conditions. Also, Snapchat has occasionally provided free trials (usually 7days) for new subscribers to try out Snapchat Plus before committing financially.

How to subscribe to Snapchat Plus?

To subscribe to Snapchat Plus, follow the steps.

1. Open your Snapchat app, tap on your profile icon to access your profile page.
2. Look for the gold-tinted Snapchat Plus banner card under your name and tap on it.

3. 

4. Choose the subscription plan you prefer and begin your 7-day free trial, if available.
5. Confirm your payment method. You can use an Apple ID, a Google account, credit or debit cards, or other regional payment options.
6. Auto-charge your payment using fingerprint, Face ID, or password when required.
7. After subscribing, a welcome screen will appear explaining Snapchat Plus features. You can make customizations, such as profile and app icons.

8. 

9. Restart the app if necessary to access all paid features.

Alternatively, you can subscribe through the web at snapchat.com/plus. Sign in, choose your plan, make the payment, then restart the app to access premium features. This process makes it easy for users to unlock the exclusive benefits of Snapchat Plus and improve their Snapchat experience.

How to cancel Snapchat Plus?

To cancel Snapchat Plus, follow these step-by-step instructions depending on your device.

Cancelling on iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Click on your name or Apple ID> Select ”Subscriptions.“

3. 

4. Search and click on “Snapchat+” in your active subscriptions.
5. Choose ”Cancel Subscription“ and confirm.

6. 

Alternatively, you can cancel it through the App Store.

1. ‍Open the App Store. Hit your profile icon on the top right corner.
2. Select “Subscriptions.”

3. 

4. Locate Snapchat+ and tap it.
5. Tap on Cancel Subscription and confirm.

6. 

Cancelling on Android phone:

1. Launch your Google Play Store profile icon. Access the option “Payments & subscriptions.”

2. 

3. Tap ”Subscriptions“ > Select “Snapchat+.”

4. 

5. Tap ”Cancel subscription.“ Follow the prompt that appears on the screen to confirm the cancellation.

6. 

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period. After this, features of Snapchat Plus will be disabled, and it will switch to the free Snapchat version. This ensures that users maintain access until the expiry of the subscription period without incurring any unwanted charges.

Benefits of Snapchat Plus subscription

Snapchat Plus offers exclusive features and customization options for power users who want more personalized, creative options and greater interaction capabilities.

It helps them stand out, engage better, and provides features that appeal to young people seeking to be unique.

Some of the major advantages include:

1. Exclusive customization. Users can choose custom app icons, themes, chat colors, and wallpapers, creating a personalized Snapchat interface.
2. Increased level of interaction. Features such as Story Boosts and Streaks help users interact more actively with their content and friends.
3. Creativity features and visual personalization. AI-powered captions, avatars, backgrounds, and AI-fueled snap enhancements open the possibilities of creativity.
4. Unique privacy and visibility features. Story timestamps, story view notifications and Peek-a-Peek enable users to track story views and message interactions more closely.
5. Special badges and icons. A Snapchat Plus badge and custom app icons set subscribers apart and increase their profile visibility.

Snapchat use with parental awareness: Safety and privacy of teens

Snapchat Plus expands engagement between users, introducing social ranking tools, engagement analytics, and status badges. While these are harmless on the surface, they lead to greater peer pressure, comparisons, and social anxiety, especially among adolescents.

In addition, they may spend more and more time on the platform to maintain streaks, badges, or relationships. Plus, subscription fees are an extra expense.

Parents should realize that Snapchat Plus doesn’t just add features; it changes the social dynamic teens have on the internet. Ranking visits, re-watches, and other visibility statistics alters teens’ concepts of friendship, self-respect, and loyalty.

Practical tips for parents

Keep in mind the legal age for Snapchat is 13. To ensure the app is used safely and in balance, here are practical tips for parents to safeguard teens.

• Elaborate upon the ”social score effect.“ Make it clear that rewatch numbers, rankings, and badges are not an indication of the actual quality of friendship.
• Open communications and set clear rules. Discuss the need to have privacy with your child. Turn off Ghost Mode or have Snap Map location sharing only with trusted people. Agree upon a maximum daily use time for social apps like Snapchat.
• Set Snapchat‘s Family Center: For users under 18, parents can use Family Center to monitor their teens’ activity, though message content remains private.
• Enhanced protection via parental controls: A third-party parental control app, FlashGet Kids, will let you know your child’s online habits and allow you to set healthy boundaries and screen time limits to reduce your child’s social media use, without having to read messages and compromise their privacy.

Final words

Snapchat Plus gives people an enhanced social media experience with exclusive, experimental, and personalization features that resonate with young users.

However, users need to consider the costs and benefits before subscribing. It is important to understand the various premium features, privacy controls, and potential effects on user safety. For both parents and teens, focusing on digital literacy and responsible internet behavior is crucial to enjoying Snapchat Plus safely.

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