Snapchat to Introduce Ads in Chat Tab Next to Messages from Friends

Snapchat is set to introduce "Sponsored Snap" ads in its main Chat tab, placing them next to messages from your friends. According to CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat will soon begin "experimenting" with this new advertising format. These Sponsored Snaps from brands will appear as unread messages, sitting above your contacts' chats until you interact with them.

In an employee memo posted on the company's website, Spiegel explained that these ads will appear "without a push notification, and opening the message is optional." However, it still needs to be determined how easy it will be to dismiss these ads without opening them or if that option will even be available. Snap declined to provide further details beyond Spiegel's memo.

This move comes as Snap's stock price hovers near an all-time low despite the platform reaching over 850 million monthly users worldwide. Snapchat's advertising business remains small compared to giants like Meta, and the company is still not profitable.

"The growth of our digital advertising business is one of the most important inputs to our long-term revenue potential, and investors are concerned that we aren't growing faster," Spiegel wrote in his memo, which coincides with Snapchat's 13th anniversary. Additionally, Snapchat will soon allow advertisers to pay to promote locations in its Map tab, where users can see their friends' whereabouts.