Snapchat Spotlight available to some iOS users in India, poised to take on Instagram Reels

Snapchat has also launched Spotlight, a feature to create videos a la Tiktok, which had over 100 million active users in January but is not yet available in India. Image: Reuters

Our hawk-eyed team has managed to spot Spotlight running on the Indian version of the iOS app. When interviewed by us, Snap's Nana Murugesan said that they were not going to be, "delaying the launch of Spotlight in India. We launched in a handful of countries last year and are actively looking to expand availability over time, but are doing so thoughtfully to ensure we can scale our rigorous moderation efforts."

It looks like that rollout has begun, albeit slowly. We were not able to find Spotlight on any of our phones running Android but the feature did appear on Snapchat's Indian app on iOS. This is most likely a case of a staggered and slow rollout.

Spotlight is Snap's answer to Instagram's Reels, allowing users to upload snaps that will be featured and are searchable on the platform or off it in the near future. Snaps shared with Spotlight are also visible to people other than friends and Spotlight is designed to be a central location to view user-generated content.

Snap heavily promoted the feature with a $1 million pot daily for people who feature in Spotlight. The company also said that people are uploading more than 175,000 videos per day using the Spotlight feature.

To access the feature once it goes live on your phone, here's what you need to do:

• Launch the Snapchat app on your phone.
• Now create a Snap.
• Select 'Spotlight' at the top of the 'Send To' screen.
• Tap the send button to submit.

Update: Snap has responded to our inquiries with the following statement, A Snap spokesperson told Moneycontrol that “We are excited by how our community has responded to Spotlight in the handful of countries where we launched last year. We are currently testing this new entertainment platform with a small group of Snapchatters in a few other locations. We will continue to expand availability over time to ensure we can effectively scale our rigorous moderation efforts.”

Once rolled out the feature will be available on both iOS and Android.