If you’re a parent of a teen who uses Snapchat, you may have heard some grumbling lately about an unwelcome change, ads are now showing up directly in their chat feed. (1) That’s right, not just in Stories or Spotlight videos, but right between personal conversations with friends.
Unsurprisingly, many teens aren’t thrilled about it, here are some comments from users on Reddit
Here’s the kicker, the only way to remove these ads is by subscribing to Snapchat+, a paid version of the app at $3.99 per month. This move is part of Snap Inc.’s effort to finally turn a profit, but it’s raising some important questions
Snapchat recently began inserting ads into the Chat tab, where users see their direct message threads with friends. These new ads aren’t skippable videos or traditional pop-ups. They appear as promoted profiles and products, wedged between conversations, creating the illusion that they’re part of your teen’s social network.
For many young users, this feels like an intrusion into what they see as a private space. And they’re not wrong. The chat feed is one of the few areas on Snapchat that had, until now, remained untouched by advertising.
Snapchat is struggling to be profitable. (2) Despite having hundreds of millions of users, especially among Gen Z, the platform has had a hard time turning that popularity into consistent revenue. Enter Snapchat+, the company’s premium subscription that offers “enhanced” features, like removing these new ads from chat.
While optional, Snapchat+ essentially monetizes an ad-free experience, charging users for something they once had for free.
Your teen is now being marketed to in even more intimate ways. Unlike traditional ads that appear between videos or stories, these new placements show up between conversations with friends, a space that previously felt personal and ad-free. This shift means that advertising is no longer something they can easily scroll past or ignore. Instead, it’s woven into the very part of the app where they connect most deeply with peers, making it harder to separate genuine communication from commercial influence.
This change may also introduce a new layer of social pressure. As more teens express frustration with these ads, some may start to view subscribing to Snapchat+ as a necessary upgrade just to reclaim the clean, ad-free experience they once had. The pressure to keep up with peers, especially when it comes to digital trends and features, can be subtle but powerful, leading to increased requests for parents to fund what essentially amounts to a paid escape from unwanted marketing.
This new feature also shines a light on the fact that there are real concerns about privacy and manipulation. When ads are embedded directly into chat feeds, teens may engage with them without realizing it. This is a classic example of what psychologists and tech critics call a “dark pattern” which are design choices that intentionally blur the line between content and advertising. These tactics are meant to influence behaviour without drawing attention to the fact that it’s happening, making it even more important that youth and teens are aware of how these systems work and how they’re being influenced.
Social media companies like Snap Inc. are businesses, and like any business, they need to generate revenue. But when the push for profit starts seeping into our kids’ private digital spaces, which they have always done, it’s time to ask some bigger questions. As parents, we can’t always control the platforms, but we can help our teens understand them and navigate them more mindfully.
Want to stay up to date on how social media changes are affecting teens? Follow along — we’re here to help parents decode the digital world.
Note – We are hearing from teens that they are starting to navigate away from traditional communication apps such as Snapchat, and moving to more private communication platforms that don’t push advertising. This is something that we wrote about in our article titled, “How Technology Use Among Teens is Evolving: Some Recent Insights From Students and Educators We Have Spoken With” (3)
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References
1/ https://businesshelp.snapchat.com/s/article/ads-in-chat?language=en_US
2/ https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-snapchat-gains-users-money.html
