Snapchat is an app that is mainly used by young people. It is a social photo network, where photos only last for a certain period of time. Those who open the app for the first time often find the interface cluttered. We'll guide you through this list of Snapchat tips.
Like the well-known WhatsApp, Snapchat actually started as an instant messenger. What is interesting is that the platform has escaped a dubious reputation. By default, photos you take and share via Snapchat are automatically destroyed after a few seconds. This ensured that the platform was soon used for sharing photos that it is better not to be saved ... By now that is no longer (only) what Snapchat is used for. It has grown into a serious social network with millions of users, not least because of the hilarious filters you can use on your photos.
The base
01 Sign in to Snapchat
You can't "peep" on Snapchat, in other words, you can't see other people's posts without creating an account. It only works on mobile devices, so download the free Snapchat app from the App Store, Google Play Store, or Windows Store (depending on which smartphone you're using). For this article we used the version for iOS. The version for the other platforms, such as Android, may be slightly different, but the basic functionality is the same.
Launch the app and press To register. Snapchat will now ask you for some data. Choose a username and password, and enter your email address and phone number. A verification code will be sent to your 06 number to verify that it is really your number. We'll skip adding friends to Snapchat for a while, because we want to set up some privacy things first. After you skip these steps, your profile is ready to use.
02 Profile picture
We will immediately add a profile picture. Although, photo… it's an animation of five photos pasted together in quick succession. You adjust your profile picture by swiping down on the main Snapchat page and pressing the white ghost. The camera is activated. Now press the white circle at the bottom to shoot your profile pictures. Five photos are now taken in quick succession and are pasted one after the other as your profile picture, inside the ghost. Don't hold back when it comes to funny faces, most people go crazy in their profile picture.
03 An unfolded box
We already mentioned it: Snapchat's interface is not the simplest. Young people seem to navigate through the interface flawlessly, the older generation has considerably more difficulty with it. That's not because the interface is bad, but because it's completely designed for touchscreens and not everyone is used to that. The best way to explain Snapchat's interface is to compare it to an unfolded box. If you were to unfold a square box, you would have a square face in the middle that is connected to another square face on each side and two square faces on one side. This is exactly how Snapchat works: the middle square is the main page. From there, you can swipe up, down, and right once, and left twice.
04 Navigating the cube
The home screen is the area where you can take photos and videos to share with your Snapchat friends (or post to a story, more on that from step 18). Swiping down will take you to your profile page, where you can add and manage friends, among other things (more on this in step 6). If you want to go from your profile view to the screen where you can chat with friends, then you first swipe up (back to the home screen) and then to the right. Swiping left from the home screen takes you to the Stories screen, then swiping left again takes you to Discover. Swipe down from the home screen to get to Reminders. We will of course explain all these parts.
05 Public or friends only?
Before we 'get it', we first want to get our privacy in order. By default, Snapchat is very open. Messages you send can only be seen by your friends. But any stories you create are thrown out into the open, and anyone within Snapchat can send you snaps and start chatting with you (a feature commonly used by spammers). Fortunately, you can limit this by in Institutions pressing Contact me and then choose My friends. Now only people you have accepted as friends can contact you.
To make your stories visible to friends only, go to My story, where you change the value to My friends or Amended (where you can block specific people from seeing your stories). You can read more about privacy from step 22.
06 Add friends
Snapping on your own is pretty boring. Other than commercial stories from partners, there's nothing to see on Snapchat if you don't add friends. So before we really start snapchatting, we look up our friends. This can be done in various places, but we go for the most logical: via the profile screen. Swipe down from the main screen to open your profile screen. There you will see the option Me, where you can see who added you and My friends, where you can manage your current friend file. Press Add / Add Friendsby Username to add friends you know the Snapchat name from. An even easier way is to import contacts from your contact list. That goes through Add friends / Add from contacts, after which you'll see a list of contacts who have an account on Snapchat. Press Add next to their name, they will be asked if they want to add you as a friend.
If you want people to know your username so they can add you, press the button on your profile page To share (half square with arrow up) right next to your name. A menu will open with which you can share your username in various ways.
Snap code
Another fairly unique way to add friends has come up with Snapchat in the form of Snapcodes. Remember the ghost where you uploaded your profile picture? That's your snapcode (the location of the dots contains the information). When you speak to someone physically and you want to add them on Snapchat, ask them to show the profile picture. Launch Snapchat, point your camera at this profile picture and press and hold your finger on the screen. The code is scanned and the person is added. You can also add an image by pressing . in your profile page Add friends and then Add with Snapcode. You can then upload an image of the code and it will be scanned. You can also share your Snapcode: press your profile picture and then To share top left.
07 Snap or chat?
You can communicate with someone on Snapchat in two ways: you can send a snap or you can start a chat. Although the two look similar, they are quite different. The main difference between snap and chat is that a snap cannot be saved (without using tricks) and a chat can. We start with understanding. A snap is a photo or video, at most with a caption. It is not possible to send someone only text as a snap (you can do that in a chat). When you open Snapchat, you will automatically be taken to the screen where you can send a snap. To take a photo, press the large white circle once, for a video, press and hold the white circle. By pressing the white arrow at the bottom right, you can choose who you want to send this snap to.
A snap is basically a standalone message. But of course you want to see if someone has viewed your snap and what their answer might be. Therefore, after you send a snap, it is automatically added to a chat with the person in question. To view this chat, swipe right from the main screen or tap the speech bubble icon at the bottom left. Now when you open the chat with the person you just sent the snap to, you will see that the snap has been delivered and whether the recipient has already seen it or not.
08 Difference between snap and chat
So why do we distinguish between a snap and a chat? This is because a chat is automatically deleted after the person has read the content, but the chat can be saved (this is done by holding down your finger on the screen). A snap can be viewed a maximum of two times, after which it is automatically destroyed. A snap is therefore the only part within a chat that you cannot save. You should of course take into account the fact that people can take screenshots of a conversation, but you will receive a notification. If you want to make photos and videos that others can store, that is also possible, you just have to send them in a different way. When you press the circle in the middle in a chat, you don't send a photo or video, but a snap. And that is by definition temporary.
group chats
Like other apps, Snapchat also lets you chat with more than one person at a time. You start a group chat from the chat screen by pressing the speech bubble with the plus sign and choosing the people. You can't start an audio or video call in a group chat. You can still send audio and video messages. Perhaps important to know is that messages you type in a group chat don't automatically disappear after everyone sees them. They are automatically deleted, but only after 24 hours.
09 Send images and sounds
Sending a photo or video that someone can keep is done via a chat window. Within a chat, press the icon of a photo at the bottom left to select a photo from your smartphone. You can't select a video from your phone to send, but you can immediately record a video and send it. To do this, long-press the camera icon. There is a maximum duration of ten seconds for a video. If you briefly press the same icon, you start a live video conversation with your chat partner.
The button with the telephone receiver works similarly, but for sound. Short press on the telephone receiver starts a live audio call and long press on that phone call records an audio message. It goes without saying (in the case of Snapchat) that audio and video conversations cannot be saved.
By the way, do you notice how much Snapchat's interface is optimized for smartphones and touchscreens?
10 Filters
Snapchat is mainly known for its fun, crazy effects and filters. The possibilities for this are very extensive within Snapchat. The service owes much of its success to its feature called masks, about which more in step 13.
We explained earlier that you take a photo by briefly tapping the white circle, and a video by long pressing the same button. After you have taken a photo or video, it will be shown immediately. You open the filters with a swipe gesture to the left. Initially only color filters are shown, but as you swipe further you will also see filters that project interactive elements on your photos, such as the speed at which you travel (not behind the wheel huh!), the temperature, the time or the location where you are (if you have location services enabled).
11 Stickers
A simple (but very nice) option within Snapchat is the ability to make a sticker from part of your photo or video. To do this, first shoot a photo or video and then tap the scissors icon at the top. You can now draw a free-form shape on the photo or video with your finger, as long as you make sure that the start and end points touch. The portion of the photo/video that falls within your shape will now be added as a sticker. Stickers can be reused on other photos and videos, providing endless creative fun. Using a created sticker is done via the icon next to the scissors. If you click on it, you will see an overview of all stickers that you can stick, including the stickers that you have made yourself. If you want to remove a sticker from this, press the icon with the scissors at the bottom and hold down a sticker.
12 Beautify further
A snap is basically a photo or video without text, but you can add a caption. Press the photo or video once anywhere (not on a sticker). Type the caption you want to add to the photo or video. Then, by pressing the icon with the letter T at the top, you can choose from three different text styles and you can adjust the color. Nice extra: if you apply a text to a video, you can hold your finger on the text to pin it to an object in the video. If this object moves (e.g. a hand), the text moves nicely with it!
If you want to express yourself even more creatively, you can also draw on your photo or video via the pencil (or crayon) icon.
13 Masks
We already mentioned it in step 10: Snapchat masks. This part is both fun and brilliant, as it uses some pretty advanced software to literally put a mask over your face. And we don't mean about a photo, but about the live image from your camera! You load the masks by holding down your finger on your face in the main Snapchat screen (so choose the right camera). Your face is scanned at lightning speed, after which circles appear on the screen that you can select to load a specific mask. This part of Snapchat is really phenomenally well done, you can turn your face in any direction and the mask just keeps working. For example, a mask can turn you into a polar bear, into a dog or it distorts your face in a funny way. Also popular is the Face Swap mask, where you look into the camera with someone else and your faces are literally swapped. Once you've chosen a mask you like, you can take a photo or video of it with the white circle at the bottom.
