Snapchat’s Snapstreaks are about to get more flexible – for a fee

Snapstreaks, a Snapchat feature that tracks how long you’ve been trading daily snaps with a friend, are about to get a little more forgiving. The company says it’s testing the option to let users restore broken streaks. “Starting soon, we’re making it easier to take a break with a new feature we’re testing to let you reignite the spark and restore one Streak for free with just one tap,” it writes. The keen eyed may have spotted a key qualifier in Snap’s sentence, which is that the company is saying you’ll currently only be able to restore a single streak for free. TechCrunch reports that users will have to pay $0.99 per streak. And if you want to be able to freely pause streaks when you know you’re going to be busy or without an internet connection, then a “freeze” feature is coming to Snapchat Plus, the company’s $3.99 premium subscription launched last year. That feature is “coming soon,” Snap says. Combined, it sounds like the new features are Snap’s attempt to monetise one of Snapchat’s most engaging features and so following a trend in social media companies.


TikTok will limit teens to 60 minutes of screen time a day but you can turn it off

TikTok has announced a batch of new features intended to reduce screen time and improve the well-being of its younger users. In the coming weeks, a daily screen time limit of 60 minutes will be automatically applied to every TikTok user under 18 years old. Teens that hit this limit will be asked to enter a passcode to continue watching. They can disable the feature entirely, but if they do so and spend more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day, they’ll be prompted to set a new limit. TikTok claims these prompts increased the use of its screen time management tools by 234 percent during the feature’s first month of testing. Teens will also be sent an inbox notification each week that recaps their screen time, allowing younger users to be aware of how much time they spend on the app. These weekly updates are available now, alongside prompts to encourage teens to use screen time tools. The 60 minute time limit will also apply to children under the age of 13 using the “TikTok for Younger Users” limited app experience.

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