Snapchat is adding community conversations under the header Topic Chats. Aiming to stimulate public discourse on news, events and other trending topics, Snap will be aggregating the threads across the app in the coming weeks for users in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. Chat shortcuts, search, the Stories page, and Spotlight videos will feature “a big yellow button” that says “Join the Chat” inviting users to the parley. Profiles will stay private to those who a user is not friends with, a feature intended to help avoid unwanted friend requests and direct messages. “This is new for Snapchat, because we’ve primarily focused on supporting private conversations rather than public ones,” Snap notes.

According to TechCrunch, display names “will be visible next to their message, others won’t be able to tap through” to the underlying profile from a Topic Chat. “And unlike usernames, display names can’t be used to search for someone.”

Digital Trends calls it “a huge move” for the platform, which earned its reputation on ephemeral, one-on-one messages that disappeared after reading, with users now able to “join massive public discussions about a trending event or a viral video — all without leaving that familiar Snapchat interface.”

In addition to guarding users against unwanted contact, a Snap newsroom post says it will be moderating Topic chats “to help make sure they are safe and appropriate for our entire community.”

Digital Trends suggests the new discussion feature will allow users “yell about random stuff in one place,” though the platform is said to be planning strict enforcement of standards, starting with warnings and escalating to blocking accounts.

Social Media Today reports that Topic Chats could be “a good way to encourage more connection and interaction in the app, expanding Snap’s use case beyond just messaging friends, and more towards traditional social media engagement.”

SMT concludes that “conceptually, providing a space for Snap’s young user base to connect with like-minded and like-interested users could be a benefit, and could give Snap more opportunities,” potentially “offering new opportunities for ad partners.”

It may prove the shot-in-the-arm SMT feels Snapchat needs, having reported when the company released earnings earlier this month that the platform “added no new users in the U.S. or Europe, with both regions looking to have stalled out, or reached saturation point for the app” during Q3.

Also in November, Snap announced a deal with Perplexity to bring conversational AI to Snapchat, and it will be interesting to see if that has any overlap with Topic Chats.