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Snapchat will let developers put their apps inside its TikTok copycat Spotlight

Snapchat will let developers put their apps inside its TikTok copycat Spotlight

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Ride the wave of virality for downloads

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Snapchat

Snapchat is making it easier for developers to use viral content to directly promote their apps. Today, it’s launching Creative Kit for Spotlight, which will allow app developers to give users the power to publish directly to Snapchat’s TikTok rival, Spotlight. At the same time, Snapchat users can browse content made on those apps and then easily navigate to download them.

It’s a win-win for both parties: Snapchat gains more content on its platform while developers are rewarded with additional downloads if an effect or tool they launch goes viral. Developers can also set up hashtag topics that’ll tag this content, so they can track how well it’s doing, and viewers can see everything made with that effect. Snap says it won’t take any sort of cut from developers, even if their app requires a purchase to use.

Initial partners include Videoleap and Beatleap by Lightricks, Splice, Powder, and Piñata Farms, among others. All these apps involve creation tools, and clearly, this is so people discover the app on the content it helped make — a real advertisement.

Although this is just the start of apps using Snapchat as a distributor, it has the potential to send a sizable number of downloads their way — just like how Snapchat’s user base tends to pop when a particular filter goes viral. In 2019, Snap estimated between 7 and 9 million users joined its platform because of viral face filters, like one that made them look like babies. That same thing could happen for an app, which, in the long term, could change the dynamics between developers and traditional app stores.