News

Snapchat Launches Its Spotlight Feature In The MENA Region

Snapchatters who decide not to reveal their profile information to the public can still earn money based on how many views their content gets.

Published

5 years ago

May 27, 2021

Joanna Melki

snapchat's spotlight feature launches in the mena region

Snapchat has just launched its new Spotlight feature in the Middle East and North Africa, enabling the local audience of approximately 75 million users to discover trending Snaps from the entire Snapchat community in one convenient place.

The Spotlight feature is Snapchat’s answer to TikTok’s success. While originally created to imitate the spontaneous, intimate feeling of real-world conversations, Snapchat has been continually innovating its platform and moving away from the original concept.

Snapchat

“Spotlight is an exciting new addition, a result of careful thought and insight into what our community wants, likes, and values. It is also built with our privacy-by-design philosophy, with the wellbeing of our community front and center,” said Hussein Freijeh, the general manager of Snap Inc. in the Middle East.

When sharing a video from their private accounts to the more public feed, Snapchat users in all regions where Spotlight is available can choose to send the video to the Spotlight feed and do so anonymously if they want to.

What’s great is that those who decide not to reveal their profile information to the public can still earn money based on how many views their content gets.

“Our hope is that Spotlight continues to break down barriers to content creation and by democratizing both distribution and the ability to earn, encourages Snapchatters to be creative and express themselves,” Freijeh added.

Also Read: Twitter Verification Badge Is Now Available To The Public

To achieve its goal, Snapchat is both automatically and manually moderating all Snaps that get submitted to Spotlight and tagging them based on their content. Each tag is then subdivided into multiple levels based on their views. A Snap featuring a dancing dog that has been viewed by, let’s say, 1,000 people then competes with other funny dog videos with a similar view count.

This simple yet effective mechanic prevents influencers and other people with a massive online following from stealing the spotlight (pun intended).

Currently, Spotlight is available in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, the UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Palestinian Territory, Libya, and Iraq.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

8 hours ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.