Snapchat is looking to the next stage of development for its TikTok rival Spotlight, with the expansion of its developer tools to now enable developers to integrate their apps into Spotlight clips. That will mean that users are now able to create Spotlight videos with these additional creative tools, and directly publish them to the Spotlight feed.
As you can see in these screenshots, through this new integration, users would be able to create Spotlight clips in, for example, the Voicey app, then upload them directly to the Spotlight feed in Snap. That clip would then include a Voicey link, which, when tapped, would show other Spotlight clips that have been created in the app, along with a quick link to download it from the relevant app store.
That could significantly expand the range of creative tools available for Spotlight, with various apps linking into the feature, with various functionalities, providing new ways to create wholly different Spotlight clips, beyond the creative tools in the main app.
It’ll also provide additional promotional value for Snapchat’s development partners. Through Snap’s developer tools, there are now more ways to link into the Snap ecosystem for app promotion and usage – and with 280 million daily actives, and a huge presence among Gen Z users, that could provide great exposure potential, giving Snapchat more creative tools and options, and developers more direct linkage into this key market subset.
Initial Spotlight integrations are now available from Lightricks, Splice, Powder, and Piñata Farms, among others, providing a new range of creative options for the option, which is already being used by over 125 million Snapchatters each month.
The expanded toolset also provides more opportunity for Snapchat to stumble onto the next viral trend in the format, and while it has a way to go to catch up to TikTok, Snapchat has long relied on creative tools to boost awareness and usage.
And with Snap still paying out money to top Spotlight creators to encourage take-up, this will further add to its incentive tools to make Spotlight a bigger consideration.
You can read more about Snapchat’s developer tools here.
