If corny filters, 1000-day streaks and text-free talking is your thing, and you do not wanna make the hassle to grab your phone for it, we have just the right news for you. Snapchat is releasing Snapchat for Web, to make the app’s key features available to PC users as well.
The service will be available exclusively as a perk of the Snapchat+ subscription service, and will initially be made available only in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand regions. Snapchat plans to roll the service out in steps, with France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates lining up for wave two, before a global release.
Along with sending snaps, users will be able to text and video-call their friends from the web platform. While Snapchat, since launch, has been media-first one-to-one hyper-momentary chatting app, it eventually did incorporate texting and video chat on its product. And while these features have not had the best implementations on the mobile version, Snapchat for Web aims to space out the Snapchat ecosystem, to provide users more room to use different features, including the soon to be available Snap AR Lenses.
The company also wants to capitalise on the dynamic shift created by the pandemic, as people being constantly at home gave them the option to access their online ecosystem from a bigger screen on a faster device.
The move puts Snapchat on a competitive collision course with WhatsApp, which runs an efficient WhatsApp web platform since 2015, and Discord, which focuses a bit more on anonymity and creating communities based on hobbies and interests, chiefly gaming.
As revenue numbers have not been impressive off-late for Snapchat, it is under considerable pressure to draw more from its existing pool of 332 million users. The move marks a first in Snapchat’s clarity towards making the subscription service Snapchat+ a worthwhile experience.
