Popular photo and video instant messaging app, Snapchat, has announced it will start charging for storing photos and videos if they exceed the five gigabytes (GB) limit. This marks a big shift from the earlier free unlimited option, which allowed Snapchat users to accumulate large collections of photos and videos since ‘Memories’ launched in 2016.
Snapchat’s new storage plans: Key details
Snapchat’s spokesperson, through a new blog post, added, “When we first launched Memories, we never expected it to grow to what it has become today. We want to make sure that our community can continue to store all of their Memories over the long term, so we are introducing new Memories Storage Plans to support Snapchatters with more than 5GB of Memories.”
For users who want to store more than 5GB of photos and videos on Snapchat, the entry-level ‘Memories’ plan is priced at $1.99 (around Rs 180) per month, offering 100GB of storage. Snapchat+ subscribers, who already pay $3.99 (around Rs 355) a month, will now get up to 250GB of storage data at no additional cost. Snapchat has also introduced a Platinum tier at $15.99 (around Rs 1420) per month, which offers a massive 5TB of storage.
Snapchat will also provide 12 months of temporary ‘Memories’ storage for any media content that exceeds the 5GB storage limit. Many Snapchat users have already criticised this move and called the company greedy. However, with these subscription plans, Snapchat is aligning itself with rivals like Google and Apple, which also monetise cloud storage, and hopes this strategy will help it future-proof its business model.
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