Snapchat Caps Free Memory Storage, Launches Paid Storage Plans (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0179637142
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/10/03/0444229/snapchat-caps-free-memory-storage-launches-paid-storage-plans
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/29/snapchat-caps-free-memory-storage-launches-paid-storage-plans/
> The company told TechCrunch in an email that the introductory storage plan offers up to 100GB of storage for $1.99 per month. Snapchat+ users will get up to 250GB of storage as part of their $3.99 monthly subscription, while Snapchat Platinum users will get 5TB as part of their $15.99 monthly subscription. Snapchat explains that when it first launched Memories, it didn't expect it to grow to what it has today, as users have saved more than 1 trillion Memories on the platform.
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> Snapchat will provide 12 months of temporary Memories storage for any Memories that exceed the 5GB storage limit. The company notes that users can download Memories directly to their devices. If you're over the limit, but don't sign up for a plan, your oldest Snaps will be saved, while the most recent ones that are over the storage limit will be deleted. Snapchat says the change won't affect most users, as the vast majority have under 5GB of Memories. It will mainly impact those with "thousands of Snaps," the company notes.
"It's never easy to transition from receiving a service for free to paying for it, but we hope the value we provide with Memories is worth the cost," Snapchat wrote in a blog post . "These changes will allow us to continue to invest in making Memories better for our entire community."
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/29/snapchat-caps-free-memory-storage-launches-paid-storage-plans/
Not Snapchat (Score:3)
IM app whose only selling point is that it deletes your data, deletes your data.
How much are the memories worth? (Score:3)
Whenever you put your data under somebody else's control, then pay them to look after it, you're one mistake away from losing it all, and the mistake doesn't even have to be yours. So you forget to update your credit card info with Company X, or a "time to renew" email gets caught in the spam filter, or PayPal decides it doesn't like your politics and suspends your account. Guess what: you just lost your data.
Basically, if you don't have all those family photos and business records and other stuff it would kill you to lose under your own direct control, you're asking for trouble. Sure, back it up elsewhere, but never count on somebody else to care about your stuff as much as you do.
Targeting the people who have aged out of it (Score:3)
Its a kid thing, by the time you're out of college you don't use it. The growth has slowed and if you're not growing revenues, you're dead, even if you're steady at billions of dollars a year.
My take on this is they are hoping to get money from the adults who have used it for years and don't want to lose whatever crap they had that reminds them of the good ol' days. Good luck with that. 5TB on snapchat???? You'd have to record hours of video every day for years at those compression rates to fill that up. This is how you drive people off your platform.
Re: (Score:2)
The free tier offers 5 GB, not 5 TB. That's still pretty generous but it's really not that hard to fill that up over the years.
Re: (Score:3)
I was just looking at the USB flash drives... 128GB for $10. USB-A or USB-C or even combo drives. Easy to carry around on your keychain. So what is the use of this cloud service again? I don't get it. Don't say "it's convenient" because if something is convenient it's a 128GB drive on your keychain that you simply insert in your computer or phone.
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Its not convenient to carry around ANY sort of storage if you're into immediate gratification of looking at videos or pictures with your friends, which is what this is targeted for. "Remember that time we did X? Wait, let me find my keys, put in the storage, open the program etc". This is targeted at young people, not old patient tech nerds.
Anyone in that category who wants long term storage has many options there, and, just guessing, isn't using snapchat....
Just to re-emphasize, the cloud i
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Isn't that why they make phones with 256+ GB storage? "The cloud" (aka "someone else's computer") might be convenient in various ways, but it's inherently slower than what is already on your phone, and it doesn't work so well from the top of a mountain[1], the bottom of a parking garage, or other places with lousy mobile coverage.
[1]- I was surprised that Mount Fuji had mobile good coverage all the way up, but I guess Japanese people also want to Snapchat/SNS from there.
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I think you're missing the point (the value proposition here (for those who value it) is that it's the data you've put onto Snapchat's social network, not 5 GB of cloud storage), but to humor the argument:
What happens if you lose the $10 drive or it fails? Do you have a resilient backup and business continuity strategies? If so, how much time and money are you spending on maintaining them?
Whenever someone says "the cloud is too expensive: I can roll my own solution for much less" it's rare that the home
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah I was not very clear - I was commenting on the 'maximum' tier, which is 5TB for $16/month. 5GB isn't too hard to fill up if you're a video taker.
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> Its a kid thing, by the time you're out of college you don't use it. The growth has slowed and if you're not growing revenues, you're dead, even if you're steady at billions of dollars a year.
Which is true, but so staggeringly stupid that I still not understand how people come to this type of evaluation. My only plausible theory is that they have no clue about things. I mean, any regular business is happy if they have stability. Growth is more of a risk than an opportunity. And why should you run that risk if things are entirely fine?