"Snapchat gave you nine years to fill their servers with your memories. Now they're charging you to keep them. In September 2025, Snapchat announced it would end free storage for "Memories", the feature where users have saved more than one trillion photos and videos since 2016. Users who exceed 5GB now face a choice. Will you pay for storage plans, or watch your memories disappear after a 12-month grace period?"
"They discovered that humans feel losses approximately twice as intensely as equivalent gains. This phenomenon is called loss aversion. When faced with losing something we already have, we experience psychological pain that far exceeds the pleasure we'd get from gaining something of equal value. Richard Thaler extended this work with something he called the endowment effect. Once people own something (or perceive they own it), even digital photos, they value it more highly than identical items they don't own."
Snapchat announced in September 2025 that free Memories storage will end, capping free storage at 5GB and imposing a 12-month grace period before deleting excess content. Users who exceed the limit must choose between subscribing to paid storage plans or losing accumulated photos and videos saved since 2016. Psychological research on loss aversion and the endowment effect explains why users resist relinquishing owned digital memories and are likely to pay to avoid loss. Long periods of free storage create emotional investment, and platform design can convert that investment into revenue through coercive pricing changes.
Read at Psychology Today
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