Snap Inc. has announced the introduction of Topic Chats, a new feature on Snapchat designed to facilitate public conversations around trending topics and events. This marks a shift for the platform, which has traditionally focused on private messaging rather than public discussions.
According to Snap Inc., Topic Chats will be rolled out over the coming weeks to users in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. The feature will appear across various sections of Snapchat, including Chat shortcuts, search results, the Stories page, and Spotlight videos. Users can join these conversations by tapping a prominent yellow “Join the Chat” button found on relevant Stories or Spotlight content.
“Watching our community engage with one another in public comments inspired us to invent a new way to have these conversations. Meet Topic Chats — a new type of Chat built for the moments everyone’s talking about,” Snap Inc. stated.
Topic Chats are intended to bring popular chat features into public forums about current events and community happenings. The feature also clusters Snaps related to each topic, making it easier for users to visually explore what is being discussed.
“You’ll be able to see if your friends are in the Topic Chats so you can discover common interests, and we’ll bring chats you join to the top of your Topic Chat page,” according to Snap Inc.
The company expressed enthusiasm about seeing how users engage with this new feature: “We’re really excited to see what the Snapchat community has to say about everything from F1, to Below Deck.”
