For $30 a year, you can buy Snapchat+, which unlocks many cool features for the app. While both of us were gifted premium, we think that it is definitely worth purchasing! Scroll down to read about all of the features…in the form of a tier list.
S TIER:
Customize My Map (Pets and Cars)
One of our favorite features from Snapchat+ is the ability to have a pet next to your Bitmoji on SnapMap. There are many different pets that you can choose from, but if you don’t love any of them, you can generate a pet using a picture. However, the AI is far from good, so it takes a lot of shuffling to get your pet perfect or not freaky looking. While Jasmine’s pet is her dog Miu Miu, Caroline’s pet is Elizabeth Hample’s dog BooBoo (puppy). Additionally, you get to choose your car. Our favorites include the moped, burger car, pony cart, and floral BMW.
Chat Wallpapers
This feature allows you to change the background of your chat with a friend or a group chat to either an AI-generated photo or one from your camera roll. We love chat wallpapers because they make chatting with people less boring, especially if you have a funny photo as your background, and they also make your chats more personal.
Tiny Snaps
Tiny snaps are a recently added feature we have fallen in love with. It was previously available to all users, but we’re glad that it’s now been moved to only premium users to have fun with. The feature allows you to add a tiny photo of yourself to whatever chat you send.
Pin #1 Best Friend
Have you ever had someone as your #1 that you don’t want to be there or want a specific user to be your #1? We have and now have each other pinned, so that can’t happen. It also saves the time you have to spend snapping your friend one million times to get them back to number one so you don’t lose your BFF emoji.
Unpin MyAI
When Snapchat added a MyAI feature to their app, they pinned the MyAI as everyone’s top chat. We absolutely hated that the AI chat always showed up, and we were ecstatic to learn that we could turn it off with Snapchat Premium.
A TIER:
Peek a Peek
Peek a Peek is another favorite feature that allows you to see when someone half-swipes your chat (looks at it without fully opening it and does not respond). Peek a Peek would be S tier if not for the fact that you can only see if someone is half-swiping when you are looking at the chat. To bring it to the S tier, Snapchat would have to notify us when someone half-swipes.
Snap Score Change
Snap Score Change tells you the number someone’s Snap Score changed between now and the last time you checked. We both rarely use this feature, but it is helpful for those who love to stalk and wonder if someone hasn’t been on snap or is just purposely not responding to them.
Extended Best Friends List
This doesn’t change how your best friends list looks, but if you click on the feature, it’ll show you the next eight people upcoming to be on your list, as well as provide arrows indicating if people have moved up or down the list. This feature is nice to see how people have moved around and who the top 16 people you have been snapping are.
Premium Profile Backgrounds
Every Snap user gets to choose a background for their profile but only from a select few options. Premium users get the perk of picking an AI-generated background, which, like the pets, is also tricky but has such a good result, or one of the premium backgrounds. Caroline’s background has blue stars, and Jasmine’s background is New York City! It is just a great way to personalize your profile further.
Post View Emoji
Although it is a small feature, the post-view emoji 100% belongs in the A tier. Post view emoji allows you to choose an emoji that will appear for your friends after they send you a snap. So cute!
Solar System
This cool feature lets you see whether you are on another user’s best friends list. Some may be confused about how you’re able to tell, so here’s a rundown: when you click into another user’s profile, if they’re on your best friend’s list or you’re on theirs, you’ll either see the words “Best Friends” or “Friends” next to the icon that states the user’s birthday. Now, the key is to look at whether or not there’s a gold ring around the icon that says those words. If there’s a gold ring around “Best Friends,” you’re both on each other’s best friends list. If there’s a gold ring around the word “Friends,” that means you’re on their list, but they’re not on yours.
B TIER:
Custom App Themes
This feature allows you to customize certain app features, like the capture button and the navigation tab. Once again, you can choose from a preset or create your own!
Custom Chat Colors
Who wants to have some random, ugly color for their conversation when you can choose whichever one you want? Some of the options include solid colors and gradients.
Snap Score Multiplier
Another recent addition, the snap score multiplier, may interest those who care about snap scores. It allows you to receive double the snap score boosts when snapping other users with Snapchat Premium. This feature would definitely be at the top of this list if you could have this on for everyone.
App Icon
This is a basic feature that we both take full advantage of: You get to change the Snapchat icon! While Jasmine’s Snapchat logo appears as a clown, Caroline’s appears as a disco ball. App icon is nice if you want the app icon to match a specific aesthetic of your phone or are just tired of the plain yellow and white ghost Snapchat logo.
Edit My AIs Bio
Although we hated on MyAI earlier, we still think it’s an entertaining app feature. As a premium user, you can permanently customize your MyAI’s bio, giving it more personality. This makes your AI way more fun to use. For example, Jasmine customized her AI as a strict Italian bagel shop owner, and we have a lot of fun messing around with it.
C TIER:
Snapstreak Reminders
We have no clue why this was included as a feature for Snapchat+ because we’re pretty sure everyone has it. While it is a good concept, it doesn’t remind you fast enough about whether our streaks are ending. It only gives you an hour warning! Therefore, it rightfully belongs in C tier.
Custom Notification Sounds
Custom notification sounds are another cool feature; however, we don’t really use it. But if you want to be told when a certain someone snaps you, you should definitely use this feature. There are a dozen notification sounds to choose from, and our favorite one is “Star Lite,” which makes a cute, twinkling sound.
Free Dreams
Dreams are another plus feature that utilizes AI to create images. A user submits a photo of themselves, and then the AI generates selfies that incorporate different themes using your picture. The “dreams” can be funny, but it’s just a kind of boring feature, that not many users make use of.
Custom Story Expiration
This feature allows you to set your Snap Stories to expire one hour, six hours, twelve hours, two days, three days, or one week after posting. To us, this seems unnecessary. Why would anyone want to keep their stories up for an hour or even a week? Maybe if you were an influencer who focuses on views; however, it is a hard pass from us.
Home Tab Customization
Home Tab customization allows you to choose which page your app opens to. While we do not utilize this feature, others may enjoy not having to open the app and immediately being directed to the camera screen.
Replay Again
As Replay Again is another feature that most people already have, allowing you to replay snaps, it’s not a meaningful addition to a premium user’s palette.
Story Timestamps
Have you ever wondered the exact time your friends viewed your story? We haven’t, either! However, if you want to know how soon after you posted, someone, perhaps a stalker, viewed your story, this feature is perfect for you.
F TIER:
Snapstreak Restore
We believe this feature needs more. As premium users, we only get one Snapstreak Restore per month. We feel like we deserve more, especially since we do not receive much of a warning when our streaks are about to end.
Snapchat Badge
We don’t like the Snapchat badge, nor do we use it. While we like to show off with our pets and premium profile backgrounds, the badge is too flashy and, honestly, a little bit cringe.
Story Rewatch Count
Like some C-tier features, this concept would rank higher if it did not miss the mark. However, this feature is undeserving of a C-tier rank. What’s the point of knowing how many people rewatched your story when it doesn’t tell you who they were? Additionally, the numbers are skewed because people often rewatch stories because they missed something or accidentally restarted. Overall, this feature seems pointless to us.
More AI…
Okay, to be honest, we’re a little tired of all of these AI features. To be brief, none of these are good and are not super fun to use.
New and Exclusive Lenses
None of the exclusive lenses are so good that it is worth having access to this feature. If we’re being honest, we had no clue that this feature existed and continue not to use it.
Priority Story Replies
This feature prioritizes your replies on celebrity or influencer story posts. But considering how many people now have premium and how infrequently these users look at their replies, this feature is meaningless.
Story Boost
Story Boost allows users to have their stories shown in front of their friends’ lists of stories. However, if you are already posting on a private story, your story should be near the front of your friends’ timelines anyway. So, again, this also doesn’t seem to serve a strong purpose. Plus, you can only boost your story once a day!
User Testimonials:
When asked why he rebought Snapchat Premium after canceling it, Aiden Ball (11) stated that he “felt like [he] was missing out, so [he] got it again, and now [he needs] it.”
Sousa Waggoner (11) says that she likes premium because she can have a pony cart and a fidget spinner, which is a pretty good justification.
Elizabeth Hample (11) got premium so that she can stalk others and thoroughly enjoys all of its features.
Connor Sawall (12) likes premium because he gets to see when people half swipe him and likes to change the chat wallpaper. He even thinks that it is “lowkey cheap.”
Isaac Chery (12) really likes the ability to pin someone as his #1 BFF because it makes his life easier. Like Connor, another one of his favorite features is being able to change chat wallpapers.
Suzanna Carlsten (12) likes that she is able to make her app icon pink and change the background of group chats with friends. She also loves that she can ride around in a horse chariot!
Final Thoughts:
The best part of Snapchat+ is that it is constantly updating! There are new features you can explore monthly. Additionally, we like all the flexibility that comes with all of the features. We can’t even put into words how excited we are for what else is to come for premium users! When our memberships run out, it is safe to say that we will be repurchasing, or rather, we will try to find another way to be renewed. Were we able to influence any of you who are/were on the fence about buying Snapchat+? If so, let us know in the comments below.
