Snapchat is making a big change to one of its most popular features — Memories. Since launching in 2016, Memories has let users save unlimited photos and videos for free. But that’s about to change. Snap has announced that users will now get only 5GB of free storage. If you go beyond that, you’ll need to pay for a subscription to keep saving your content.
New Storage Plans and Pricing
The rollout will happen gradually worldwide. In the U.S., Snap is introducing:
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100GB plan for $1.99/month
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250GB plan included with the existing Snapchat+ subscription ($3.99/month)
For users who already have more than 5GB saved, Snap is offering a 12-month grace period. During this time, you can either upgrade your plan or download your saved Memories before they risk being lost.
How Users Are Reacting
Not surprisingly, many long-time Snapchat users aren’t happy. Some have built up years of Memories under the assumption that storage would always be free. Social media reactions have called out Snap for putting a price tag on nostalgia.
Snap, on its part, admitted that the transition from free to paid won’t be easy for everyone. But the company says this move will help it invest further in improving Memories, which has already stored over one trillion photos and videos since it launched.
Part of a Bigger Trend
Industry analysts see this as part of a wider shift across social media platforms. As people are saving more content privately and posting less publicly, paid storage is becoming almost inevitable. Snap also pointed out that the majority of its 900 million monthly active users have less than 5GB saved, so most won’t be affected right away.
