What Is Snapchat Spotlight? Everything We Know So Far

A dominant, and one could even say an incredibly successful trend over the last few years has been short viral style videos. The concept, which was first introduced by TikTok, exploded across the internet and now become an extremely popular and relevant content style that is being used by millennials and gen Z.

Social Media platforms know this, and Zuckerberg even made it a point to introduce Reels in Instagram to keep up with the times. Now, it seems that Snapchat has finally caught up too. With the introduction of Snapchat Spotlight, we can be absolutely certain that visual, short viral videos are here to stay.

What is Snapchat Spotlight?

In a nutshell, Spotlight is TikTok for Snapchat, a specific section in the app meant for short viral 60 seconds or fewer videos that can be explored comfortably.

This feature was released yesterday with a lot of gusto and Snapchat even went as far as to describe it as ‘the easiest way to discover the world of Snapchat in one place’ in a kind of vague description.

They’re calling Spotlight videos snaps that can be explored by swiping up and down. So yes, Spotlight is here to give TikTok a run for its money or in this case, users.

How does Snapchat Spotlight work?

Snapchat has replaced the Discover section with Spotlight. The play icon at the bottom of the interface will now lead the user to the Spotlight page instead of the Discover one.

The format is similar to that of TikTok and videos can be viewed via the scrolling method. You can swipe up or down to view short videos.

How to upload a Spotlight video on Snapchat

The same principle applies to a Spotlight video as for any other snap.

Record a video from the Snapchat Camera.

Tap the send icon.

Now, select the Spotlight option that will appear before stories and other options. Before the snap goes live, Snapchat will show you a disclaimer for which you must tap on Okay.

Spotlight features to use

There are three main features provided for interaction with the snaps in Spotlight. Here’s what you need to know.

Favorites Icon

You will notice a heart icon towards the bottom left of the video. By tapping on this icon, you can add the snap to your favorites. These snaps will be available for thirty days in the My Spotlight Favorites menu.

Share Icon

The arrow icon just under the heart icon will enable you to share the snap with anyone you want. You can also share a link for the snap to other platforms.

Three-dot menu

The three-dot icon expands to reveal a menu with more information about the snap like what topic the snap covers. You can also add the creator of the snap from the menu.

Spotlight’s $1,000,000 USD a Day scheme

In a bid to attract users towards Spotlight, Snapchat has introduced a fiscal scheme that will pay creators of viral videos a certain amount from a $1 million prize a day. The user can be private or public and does not need to have massive followership to be eligible.

As long as the snap goes viral on Spotlight, one will be considered for a part of this cash prize on basis of their content and its virality. The video’s appearance on Spotlight will be decided by Snapchat’s algorithms and the video can be up to 60 seconds long.

Introducing Spotlight ?

The best of Snapchat. Sit back and take it all in, or submit your video Snaps and you could earn a share of more than $1,000,000 a day. Happy Snapping!https://t.co/U7eG7VNJqk pic.twitter.com/mxGWuDSdQk

— Snapchat (@Snapchat) November 23, 2020

Where is Snapchat Spotlight available?

According to Snapchat, Spotlight has only been rolled out for the following 11 countries so far. These are also the only countries that are eligible for the $1 million a day scheme.