Snap Map badges reveal your most visited locations
▼ Summary
– Snapchat is introducing a “Place Loyalty” feature that shows users if they are among the most frequent visitors to a location on Snap Map over the past year.
– Users receive a gold, silver, or bronze badge for being in the top 1%, 10%, or 25% of visitors, and can choose to share this ranking.
– The feature requires users to share their location, and the rankings are only visible to the individual user, according to Snapchat.
– This update is part of Snapchat’s ongoing evolution of Snap Map, which launched in 2017 and now has over 400 million monthly active users.
– Snapchat frequently updates Snap Map with features like this to engage users, following previous additions such as “Footsteps” and “Promoted Places.”
Snapchat is introducing a new Place Loyalty system that identifies and rewards its most active users based on their location history. The feature, announced this week, analyzes a user’s visits to specific spots over the last twelve months. If your frequency ranks you within the top 25% of visitors for a location, you will see a special badge on your Snap Map. These badges come in three tiers: a prestigious gold badge for the top 1%, silver for the top 10%, and bronze for the top 25%. For national chains, the platform aggregates visits across all their locations to calculate these rankings.
User privacy remains a central component of this update. These loyalty badges are only generated for individuals who have opted to share their location data with Snapchat. Furthermore, the company states that your specific ranking is private and visible only to you, though you can choose to share any earned badges with friends or on other social platforms.
This move represents another layer of engagement for Snap Map, a feature that has grown significantly since its 2017 launch. Initially focused on letting friends share their locations and view public snaps globally, the map has evolved into a tool for discovering local hotspots and activities. The new badge system incentivizes users to interact more with the map and publicly showcase their affiliations with favorite places.
The feature arrives as Snap Map continues to be a major asset for the platform, boasting over 400 million monthly active users as of last year. While it once provided a clear advantage over competitors like Instagram and TikTok, the competitive landscape has intensified. Instagram launched its own location-based feature last year, though its user adoption metrics remain undisclosed.
As one of Snapchat’s core products, Snap Map receives frequent updates aimed at boosting user retention. Last year, the company introduced Promoted Places, allowing brands to advertise all their locations directly on the map. The year prior saw the launch of the “Footsteps” feature, which lets users visualize and track their global travel history. The new Place Loyalty badges are the latest effort to make the digital map a more dynamic and personally rewarding experience.
(Source: TechCrunch)
