Snapchat – How To Use Snapchat

Snapchat – How To Use Snapchat: Snapchat is a popular photo-messaging app (or some may say, once popular) that allows users to take photographs, capture videos, add sketches, and send them to their friends.

It will appear for only a few seconds (or a little longer, depending on your settings) when you get a message on the app, usually referred to as a snap, but once you click away or the time limit expires, it’s gone for good.

Our guide will get you started and run through some of the app’s more integral features, including how to send and receive snaps and connect with the app’s Stories function, whether you’re a Snapchat veteran or a complete newbie.

We help demystify the most common form of social networking among young adults, taking into account the 2018 redesign, which altered the interface and how many users communicate with the app.

Getting started

You need to download the app from either the App Store or Google Play first. Click the icon once it’s installed to open it. They will then ask you for your first and last name by tapping Sign Up. After completing that, click Sign Up and Approve and adhere to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Snapchat. First, you’ll be asked to mark your birthday.

Now you will need to pick your username, which will be used on Snapchat to mark you. Make sure it’s something you like and can quickly recall because once you set it, you won’t be able to change it. You will then select a password and enter a phone number where a confirmation code will be sent to you to validate your phone number.

You will be asked to enter an email address and to validate it after completing the simple registration. Note: To use Snapchat, you must be a minimum of 13 years old.

Adjust your settings

If you ever need to upgrade your results, head to the settings section. You can reach it by pressing your Bitmoji or profile icon in your screen’s upper-left corner. If you’ve added your Story over the past 24 hours, instead of these icons, a preview will appear there, but pressing it will work the same. To update your details, including who can give you snapshots and display your stories, find the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the resulting menu. You can also clear caches and double-factor authentication for conversations.

Creating your Bitmoji

You have been able to create custom cartoon avatars and stickers to use inside the app since July 2016, when Snapchat acquired Bitstrips and Bitmoji. Click the Bitmoji option in Settings to guide the Bitmoji app if you want to build a Bitmoji avatar (you probably do; they’re a lot of fun). You can then create an avatar from there and connect your Bitmoji to your Snapchat account.

Find and add friends.

Tap Add Friends on your profile to add friends on Snapchat. You can then use your username to check for contacts. If your contacts have been synced, go to the Contacts section, where all your friends with Snapchat accounts will be seen. A yellow notification will appear on your profile icon when a friend adds you (as seen from the camera), and you will see “1 Snapchatter has added you!” “Under Friends Add. Tap +Accept next to their name in the Add Friends menu to add a friend who has already added you.

Create your first snap

It will automatically activate the camera when you first open Snapchat. By tapping on the screen, you can change the emphasis easily. You’ll trigger filters if you wipe your face while in selfie mode. Tap the camera icon in the upper right-hand corner to switch from the rear-facing camera to the front-facing camera. Tap the lightning symbol to the left of the camera icon to toggle the flash on. Tap the circle at the bottom of the screen to take a picture.

When you take a video, tap and hold the circle; with Snapchat, videos are taken in 10-second intervals, but if you keep the record button, you can record multiple snaps (up to six). You can move your finger to the left of the lock icon if you realize you’re recording a more extended video when you’re recording, so now you don’t have to keep keeping the button. In the left-hand corner of your screen, a preview of each snap will appear.

Spicing up your snaps

One of Snapchat’s best things is that it has plenty of features to make your snaps more interesting. You can doodle your messages, add various hues, emojis, stickers, text, and change the time limit. And parts of the images you take can be duplicated and converted into stickers.

How to add text

Click the T icon in the upper-right corner of your screen after taking a shot if you want to add text to your images to give them a little more meaning. This brings up the traditional method of adding text to the snap. Pressing the icon again, including oriented and left-aligned text, will loop through many more choices. You can change the text color and shift your cursor to the screen’s right side along with the slider.

By pressing on the button and rotating around with a single finger, the free-floating text may also be rendered bigger or smaller. Snapchat also provides you with numerous fonts, including Script and Comic Sans, to choose from.

How to add lenses

With Instagram, Snapchat has followed suit, enabling you to apply filters to your face, although they call them lenses. Tap on the smiley face icon on the right of the picture button before you take a picture. Then you can pick from more than 20 different filters to “throw up” a rainbow, like turning yourself into a sweet puppy. Now, Snapchat uses speech recognition to animate your face, instead of having to stick out your tongue to adjust the lenses.

How to add doodles

Tap the pencil tool below the T button, located in the top-right corner, to add a doodle to the snap. By changing the slider, you can change the color, and you can press on the screen to make your brush size bigger or smaller, just like the new text. Then, draw on the picture with your finger. If you make a mistake, don’t worry; by clicking the arrow on the left of the pencil, you can quickly erase your mistake. To return to the original menu, press the pencil again.

How to add a cool filter or effect

Are you trying to add your snaps with various hues? Second, make sure you have activated filters. As many of the filters are location-based, you need to share your location with the app. Swipe your finger left or right on the screen after you have the filters activated, and you’ll be able to preview each filter or frame available.

More than one filter can be added to a snap, too. The layer icon will appear below the stopwatch icon after taking a photo and clicking to the right. Once the right color filter for your snap has been found, press the icon, and you can select another filter. On each shot, you can have up to three filters.

How to add GIFs and stickers

It’s simpler than ever to make a unique snap; press the paper icon under the pencil tool, and you’ll be taken to a menu where you can add GIFs, stickers, Bitmojis, and emojis. Plus, if you already know what kind of sticker or GIF you want, you can find exactly what you are searching for using the search bar.

How to adjust the time limit

You can pick how long you want your receiver to be able to see your snap by changing the time limit. It’s possible to change the time from 1 to 10 seconds. There is a No-Limit option, but after it is locked, the message will vanish. To change this setting, tap the stopwatch icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu after taking a snap.

How to save your snaps

Tap the downward-pointing arrow at the bottom of the screen to download if you want to save your snap before it is sent or before you cover it in stickers or doodles. You can then opt to keep it on your phone’s Camera Roll or your Memories, a personal selection of snaps and stories on the app. Snapchat must have access to your photo album if you want to save a picture on your computer. Click the small grey X in the upper-left corner to erase your current snap and return to your camera if you don’t like the shot you’ve taken and want to start all over.

Sending your first snap

You’re happy to submit your first snapshot now that you’ve opened an account and added a few mates! Tap the blue arrow in the bottom-right corner to submit a snap after you’ve taken one. It will show your contact list, and you can choose to who you want to send it to. There is no limitation on how many people you can send a snap to with Snapchat, so have fun with it and send your photo to as many friends as you want (although keep in mind they get a notification for each one).

Also, from this menu, you can choose to add to your Story (a series of snaps that will remain on your profile for 24 hours) or add to a public Story. Tap the white submit icon in the lower right corner when you’re ready to send your snapshot.

If you already have a picture on your phone that you want to share on Snapchat, press the small icon below the larger circle to take a photo from your camera (it looks like two photos overlapping). You will then be moved to Snapchat’s Memories site. The Camera Roll tab, which can be used to search images saved on your computer, is also located here. Just tap one of the files, click to edit the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner, and hit Send when you’re done.

Viewing received snaps

Go to the camera screen to display the received screenshots, and swipe to the right to enter the Friends menu. This menu can also be reached by clicking the Friends icon on the lower-left corner’s camera screen. A circular warning should appear on this icon if you have any unread messages. When you hit the menu, if there is a filled-in icon next to any of your friend’s names (blue for text, red for a picture, or purple for video), that means you haven’t opened a snap yet.

If you see an empty or white (or none at all) symbol, that means you’ve seen it already. By clicking the name of a specific person and scrolling up in the chat log, you can also see if you missed any snaps.

Look under the name of the person you want to search to see if your friends have received your messages. Underneath their reputation would be a small box or arrow (in one of the three above colors). If any icon is white, it means they’ve opened it, and when they open it to the right of that spot, it will tell you. It’ll let you know when the message was sent if they haven’t.

Creating and sending Stories

Snapchat introduced Stories back in 2013, which allows you to add a snap to a feed for 24 hours before it disappears. Your mates can view stories, or if you share a public article, by everyone. Viewing your friend’s stories is a little bit different from the last update. You can also access messages from the same menu.

If there’s a blue ring in the Friends menu around some of your friend’s pictures, that means they’re posted to Story of the day. To view it, click on the frame. Click the left part of the structure, click the right part to go back, or pull down to close if you want to miss a snap. By swiping to the left of the camera screen, you can view your friend’s stories, and your stories will be at the top.

Take a picture or video and tap the plus sign icon located at the bottom of your screen to make your own Story. Then, press the Add button. You can also add a message to your Story from the top of the Send To menu, where your friends will be sent messages.

If you want to remove a snap from your Story, just go to your profile (which displays a glimpse of your Story in the upper left corner of the camera page) and press the My Story button in the center of the screen. Tap the photo or video you want to delete and pick the trash icon at the bottom of the image. You can also download your entire Story to the scroll of your camera by pressing the down-factory icon.

Discovering curated stories from Snapchat’s editorial teams

Curated stories from Snapchat’s different news teams are now easier to find than ever before. More than 25 media outlets, including IGN, The New York Times, Complex, ESPN, CNN, People, Vice, Food Network, and Mashable, are currently available to choose from.

You can either tap the Discover icon in the lower right corner of the camera to use the Discover function or swipe from the same screen to the left. You can see thumbnails for the various stories you can access, including those from Snapchat, in the Discover tab. Each Story is divided into short video clips that you can tap through like a regular Snapchat video. Some also make it possible for you to swipe and read a full post. Bear in mind that there are advertisements for each channel, but you can easily skip them.

Chatting on Snapchat

Not only does Snapchat let you submit snaps and stories, but you can also chat with your friends through video and speech. Go to the Friends menu to start a conversation and pick the friend you would like to speak with. You can send images, call, access your camera, video chat, and send emojis to the conversation. You can access this from the emoji tab in the chat logs if you have Bitmoji set up.

When you leave the chat screen, it will automatically clear your messages between you and your mate. Tap and hold the one you want to keep if you want to save a post. The choice to copy the message or save it to the chat will be given to you; if the message is saved in the conversation, the background color switches to grey. Tap it again and pick Unsave to unsave it.

Using Snapchat Spectacles

You no longer have to pause and pull out your phone to catch a moment with the launch of Snapchat Spectacles. Spectacles 2 was just published on September 5th and can now be bought online for a cool $150 to $200 directly from the Spectacles website. It provides a unique way to record snaps when on the move if you can get your hands on a pair.

You have to pair your Spectacles with your account before you start taking Snapchat videos with apt-titled glasses, though. Open Snapchat to do so and view Settings. Scroll down from there before you see Spectacles. Tap the Spectacles button, and you’ll find instructions to pair them with your account there. You will also find a connection there to buy a pair of Spectacles.

Only tap the button on the left-hand side of the glasses to capture a video using the Spectacles. The reflectors can record a 10-second video, and with each additional press, you can add 10 seconds at a time to your video. When recording the lenses, the LED lights in the specs would also illuminate. Be sure to check out our full Spectacle use guide on how to buy one to use it.

After the app’s latest update, the Snapchat GUI might have improved, but it is still easy enough to use, if only with a bit of practice. Stories have now been integrated into the Friends screen, and the overall interface has changed somewhat, but Snapchat is still the same. You will soon be snapping away with little guidance and sharing all of life’s special moments with your friends.