Snapchat launched all the way back in 2011, and has had quite the journey since: It practically invented the stories format that every social media platform uses, and helped drive the shift from public and permanent online sharing to the more private and temporary approach most of us prefer today.
The app is also packed with more features than you might be aware of—in fact, it could reasonably claim to be the most capable and versatile social media app out there. From location alerts and data saving, to custom notifications and clever camera tricks, here’s how to get the most out of Snapchat.
Use Snapchat’s buried Data Saver mode to use less storage and prolong your battery life
Snapchat comes with a Data Saver mode that does exactly what it sounds like—it saves on data usage. Snaps and stories won’t load automatically in the background like normal, so you’ll need to manually tap them to trigger the download and see the media. This helps when you’re traveling and away from reliable wifi, and because there’s less background downloading going on, you should save a little battery life too. To enable it, from your profile, tap the cog icon (top right) to open the app settings, then tap Data Saver.
Get notifications only for specific Snapchat stories
Get notifications for specific stories.
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There’s a lot going on in Snapchat, so if you’ve got a significant number of friends, you can quickly get overwhelmed with notifications—especially when it comes to stories. With a little bit of tweaking, you can just get alerts for the stories you care about most.
From your profile page, tap the cog icon (top right), then Notifications—from here you can turn off notifications for stories generally. You can then add story notifications specifically for your favorite contacts, one by one. Tap through to the friend’s profile page, then tap on the three dots (top right): Choose Story Settings > Story Notifications to make sure you get alerts for this particular person.
You can create snaps with multiple cameras at once
You don’t have to limit yourself to just one camera for your snaps: You can capture photos and videos from both the selfie and rear cameras on your phone simultaneously, so you can comment on or react to what you’re seeing. When you’re in the main capture screen, tap the drop-down arrow on the right, then pick Dual Camera. Tap on the Dual Camera icon again to choose from four layout options—including one where a cut out of you gets superimposed over the main view.
Use Snapchat’s Snap Map to let someone know when you’ve arrived safely
You can set up location alerts for trusted friends and family.
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This isn’t something that you’ll want to use widely, but it’s handy for family members and partners: As an extension of the Snap Map location sharing feature, you can also ping a specific contact when you get home (or arrive at any other place on the map).
Head to the contact’s main profile page, tap the three dots (top right), then choose Arrival notifications. You can pick My home, or tap Add to set up another location—it could be school, football practice, or whatever you like.
Let your friends decide if they want to view your custom Snapchat stories
One of Snapchat’s most appealing features is the way you can create custom stories for custom audiences, and these can be set up from your profile page: Just tap New Story. However, you don’t have to pick the contacts who can view your story yourself—you can let your friends decide if they want to get involved instead.
Once you’ve created a story, create a new snap in the usual way, then tap the sticker icon (top right), and Story. This lets you post an invite link to any of your stories, so your contacts can decide for themselves whether they want to see your vacation adventures or thousands of your pet pictures.
The snap can be posted to individuals, or to one of your other stories, so you still get full control over who can see what (and you can kick out story viewers at any time).
You can search through your Snapchat memories
There are some powerful search options for your Snapchat memories.
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Snapchat is focused on content creation, which means you may not realize how much you can do with the photo and video memories that the app builds up for you. From your profile page, tap the three dots (top right), then Memories to make sure they’re being saved (you can also save individual snaps as you capture them).
What do you think so far?
You can get to your memories later by tapping the image icon to the left of the shutter button on the main capture screen—and there’s a powerful search capability built right in. Try searching for pets, sunsets, locations, or dates (like “August 2023”) and you’ll get results back more or less instantly.
You’ll also see certain images and videos picked out by Snapchat and grouped as flashbacks, and any of your memories can be reposted again as snaps or stories (with new edits, if needed).
Yopu can permanently save your Snapchat chats
Snapchat is known for its ephemerality, but your pictures, videos, and text messages don’t have to disappear right after they’ve been viewed. You can keep them around for longer in certain conversations, turning the app into more of a conventional messaging tool.
From inside any of your one-to-one or group chats, tap the header bar at the top, then the three dots (top right). Choose Delete Chats and you can set them to never expire. You can also save images, videos, and text permanently by tapping and holding on them in the chat, then choosing Save in Chat.
You can make your own Snapchat stickers
You can add your own stickers to the Snapchat selection.
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Anything in your image and video snaps can be cut out as a sticker, ready to be used again in future posts. When you’ve captured the content, tap the scissors icon on the right, and you get three selection tools for picking out the sticker you want. Once you’ve done the cutting, you can reposition the new sticker anywhere you want in the current snap, and find it in the future by tapping on the sticker icon in the top right corner of the capture screen.
You can also use Snapchat in a web browser
Snapchat isn’t just for mobile, and there’s an official web app that offers most of the features you get on Android and iOS. It also makes typing much easier, so if you use Snapchat as a general messaging app, this is something worth looking into. You can view stories on the web, and even send snaps—though you’ll be limited to using your computer’s webcam, so these will mostly just be snaps of your face and whatever room you happen to be in.
Snapchat has a hidden dark mode—and other themes
A dark mode for Snapchat is available.
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There are a variety of different themes for Snapchat on mobile that you can choose between, though these options are pretty well hidden in the app. From your profile page, tap the cog icon (top right), then choose App appearance to get to the themes. Swipe left and right to cycle through them, including light and dark modes and numerous others. If you’re a Snapchat+ subscriber ($3.99 a month), the benefits include being able to customize individual theme elements yourself.
