Snapchat has started telling users that they are limiting the amount of free storage of its popular “Memories” feature.
The shift implies that users who cross the 5GB mark will eventually be forced to pay a monthly fee to prevent their old snaps being erased.
The company will also provide them with a grace period of one year after they first reach the storage limit.
Then, an over-limit account will have to subscribe to a 100GB storage plan with $1.99 per month fee or they will automatically lose their latest memories.
Those who do not necessarily need another monthly subscription can use two free options available on Snapchat to save and store memories offline.
The former one is to share memories in batches straight to the camera roll of a phone.
The users can click on the Memories section, choose up to 100 snaps at once and press the "Export" button to save them to the device.
It is simple to use, but time-consuming for users with huge archives.
The second and more detailed variant is to demand full data downloading of Snapchat. Going to Settings > My Data, users may order their full Memories archive.
Snapchat will then send an email with a link to a downloadable.zip file of all snaps saved, but the time required to prepare such a file may vary.
Such free solutions guarantee a user to keep a decade of personal memories without incurring an extra charge to the existing stack of digital subscriptions.