Snapchat is officially jumping into the awards-show game, and it’s doing it in a very Snapchat way: creator-first, culture-obsessed, and firmly rooted in the community that grew up on the app. On March 31, the company will host its first-ever Snappys Awards Show at its Santa Monica headquarters, a dedicated night to celebrate the people who turned casual Snaps into careers and in-jokes into internet culture.

At the center of the evening is comedian and Snap Star Matt Friend, who’s been tapped to host the show. Friend isn’t some random celebrity parachuted in for the cameras—he’s someone who actually built his audience on Snapchat, using the platform to hone his impressions and offbeat humor. In his own words, Snapchat is where he “grew up,” and hosting The Snappys feels like a full-circle moment: a creator who came up on the app now fronting the show that’s meant to define what creative success on Snapchat looks like.

The Snappys are framed very deliberately as a “creator-first recognition moment,” which is corporate-speak for: this isn’t just a marketing stunt, it’s supposed to be a real badge of honor inside the Snapchat ecosystem. Awards will span categories like Spotlight MVP (for standout short-form video creators), Best Storyteller, and Breakout Creator of the Year, along with lanes for fashion, beauty, sports, music, food, games, collaboration, comedy, and cultural impact. In other words, if there’s a corner of Snapchat where people are obsessively watching something, chances are there’s a Snappy being attached to it.

There’s also a very deliberate choice of icon to anchor the night: DJ Khaled. Snapchat will present him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, explicitly crediting his “lasting cultural impact and influence” as a creator, artist, and entrepreneur. For longtime Snapchat users, this is more than nostalgia. Khaled’s chaotic, unfiltered Stories—from getting lost on a jet ski in Miami to his “another one” meme runs—were a turning point in proving that Snapchat could mint internet legends, not just host disappearing selfies. Honoring him is Snapchat effectively putting a stake in the ground about its own history: before TikTok virality and Instagram Reels, there were raw, vertical Khaled Snaps that everyone talked about the next day.

From Snap’s side, the messaging around The Snappys is all about elevating creators from “users” to “artists, entertainers, and cultural leaders.” Jim Shepherd, Head of Content Partnerships, describes the awards as a reflection of how powerful the creator community has become—people who aren’t just entertaining audiences, but “driving conversations, building businesses, and shaping culture.” That kind of language is doing double duty. It flatters the talent, but it also positions Snapchat as a serious player in entertainment, not just another social app in your folder.

Timing-wise, the awards show doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Over the last couple of years, Snapchat has quietly retooled its entire creator strategy. Its invite-only Snap Stars program pays creators via revenue sharing from ads between their Stories, as well as rewards for vertical videos in Spotlight, its TikTok-like feed. In 2024, Snap expanded revenue sharing to longer Spotlight videos, opening up another earning stream for top creators who met fairly steep thresholds in followers, posting cadence, and watch time. By early 2025, that was rolled into a unified monetization program that put more emphasis on turning serious Snap Stars into full-on businesses.

Layered on top of that, Snapchat recently rolled out Creator Subscriptions, which give big-name Snap Stars tools to offer subscriber-only Stories, priority replies, and even ad-free viewing of their content, all behind a monthly paywall they can price themselves within Snap’s recommended range. Put simply, there’s now an actual financial ladder on Snapchat. At the bottom, you have casual posters; at the top, you have Snap Stars with revenue share, subscriptions, and now, potentially, Snappys trophies sitting on their shelves.

This is also Snapchat reading the room. TikTok has its own awards; YouTube has long had plaques and formal recognition structures; Instagram leans on verification and brand collabs. Snapchat, for a while, felt like the quiet one in the corner—the app you still used with close friends, but not necessarily where you went to find the next big creator name. The Snappys are Snap’s way of saying: actually, our talent ecosystem is big enough, influential enough, and commercially important enough to deserve its own night, red carpet and all.

The choice to host the show at Snapchat’s own Santa Monica HQ rather than a massive arena also says a lot about the vibe they’re going for. Expect something more intimate, creator-heavy, and platform-native than an ultra-polished televised spectacle. Snapchat is promising a guest list that blends creators, industry leaders, and special guests, but the emphasis is squarely on the voices and stories that resonate inside the app’s own community. If they get it right, the night will feel less like a brand event and more like the in-person version of scrolling through your favorite Stories and Spotlight feed for a few hours.

For creators, an awards show does more than generate a few viral clips. Recognition like “Spotlight MVP” or “Breakout Creator of the Year” can be powerful social proof when negotiating brand deals, pushing new subscription tiers, or even just convincing skeptical family members that yes, posting to Snapchat is a real job now. If Snapchat chooses to lean into badges, on-profile indicators, or in-app promotion for winners and nominees, The Snappys could become a meaningful milestone in a creator’s career trajectory, not just a one-night photo op.

Zooming out, this move is also about narrative control. Over the past few years, Snapchat has had to repeatedly swat away “Is Snapchat still relevant?” think pieces as TikTok soaked up cultural oxygen. Yet the numbers and product decisions tell a different story: Spotlight viewership up year over year, monetization programs expanding, and a pivot towards helping creators build sustainable income on the app. By launching The Snappys right now, Snap is effectively saying: we’re not fading into the background, we’re doubling down on the part of the platform that shapes what people watch, quote, and share.

Details like the full nominee list and exact moments planned for the night are still under wraps, with Snap promising more info as March 31 gets closer. But the basic pitch is already clear. The Snappys are designed to be Snapchat’s annual love letter to the people who keep its culture moving—from comedy impressionists and beauty experts to sports commentators, bedroom musicians, and food creators who figured out how to make a plate of fries look cinematic in 10 seconds. If Snapchat manages to bottle that chaotic, unfiltered spirit of a great Story or Spotlight snap and blow it up into a live show, The Snappys might actually become what every creator awards night wants to be: less about the brand on the step-and-repeat, and more about the creators who made the brand worth opening in the first place.