Snapchat Plus Paid Subscription Service Available in US at $3.99 per Month

Snap on Wednesday launched a paid version of the Snapchat app in the US, priced at $3.99 (nearly Rs. 315) a month, and a few other markets, in a major step away from a revenue model dependent mostly on advertising.

Snap, which had teased the subscription version, Snapchat+, earlier this month, said the paid service would be available in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at launch.

Social media firms are under pressure as companies cut back on ad budgets in response to rising costs and weakening consumer spending.

Last month, Snap said it would miss revenue and profit targets for the second quarter and would have to slow hiring and lower spending, sending its shares down over 40 percent in a single day.

Initial features in the paid version include the ability to change the app's icon, see who re-watched a story and pin other users on chat history as a 'BFF', Snap's senior vice president of product, Jacob Andreou, told tech news site The Verge.

In addition to the paid service, the social media platform has introduced many new features recently. It announced a new Shared Stories functionality that allows users who have already been added to a Shared Stories group, to invite other Snapchatters into that group to view and contribute to the story. Also, Snapchat parent Snap expanded its partnership with ShareChat's Moj to integrate its AR Camera Kit within MX TakaTak. With this, the MX TakaTak app now offers the ability to access new camera experiences powered by Snapchat's augmented reality (AR) technology.