Snapchat is rolling out Topic Chats, a feature that marks a departure from the platform’s traditional focus on private messaging, enabling users to engage in public discussions about trending topics and events.

Launching across the United States, Canada, and New Zealand over the coming weeks, the feature appears in Chat shortcuts, search results, the Stories page, and on Spotlight videos. Users can join conversations by tapping a yellow “Join the Chat” button displayed on Stories or Spotlight content.

The company creates Topic Chats in response to user engagement in Spotlight comments. Snapchat reports that users create billions of Snaps daily and demonstrate interest in publicly commenting on trending topics through its existing features.

Privacy and Safety Measures

The platform maintains user privacy protections within Topic Chats. User profiles remain private to non-friends, preventing unwanted friend requests or direct messages. Display names appear next to messages, but other users cannot access profiles through Topic Chat interactions. Unlike usernames, display names cannot be used for user searches.

According to TechCrunch, Snapchat is implementing LLM AI technology and additional safety measures to moderate Topic Chats. The company requires messages to adhere to Snapchat’s Community Guidelines and provides reporting tools for inappropriate content. 

Snap takes enforcement actions against policy violations, including issuing user warnings and blocking accounts. Messages sent in Topic Chats are retained for up to five years.

Topic Chats integrates existing chat features into public conversations and clusters Snaps related to specific topics. Users can see which Topic Chats their friends have joined, making it easier to discover common interests. The feature surfaces related Spotlight videos alongside messages, combining short-form video content with conversation threads.

Strategic Context

The Topic Chats launch follows Snap’s announcement of a $400 million partnership with AI company Perplexity to integrate conversational search capabilities into Snapchat’s Chat interface. That integration is set to launch in early 2026.

Snap reports 943 million global monthly active users in Q3 2025, up 7% year over year. The company generated $1.51 billion in Q3 2025 revenue, a 10% increase from the previous year.

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