San Francisco, Jun 30 (IANS): Popular social media platform Snapchat has announced that it is launching Snapchat Plus, a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features available on the platform, for $3.99 per month.

The company said that it will be available at launch in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. However, Snapchat mentioned that it will expand the feature to more countries over time.

"We have always enjoyed creating new features for our community, and historically we have tested new features in different ways, rolling them out to various Snapchatters and geographies," the company said in a statement.

"This subscription will allow us to deliver new Snapchat features to some of the most passionate members prioritised unity and allow us to provide prioritised support," it added.

The company claims that over 332 million people worldwide use Snapchat every day.

"We are looking forward to hearing your feedback on Snapchat Plus and we cannot wait for you to try our latest products and features," the company said.

According to app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Snapchat Plus will allow you to pin one of your friends as your "#1 BFF".

Not just Snapchat but several other popular apps have started paid subscription services after Apple's introduced a privacy feature with iOS 14.5, allowing users to turn off ad tracking for apps.

Instant messaging platform Telegram's founder and CEO Pavel Durov this month confirmed that a subscription-based offering called 'Telegram Premium' will be coming later this month.