How to use snapchat

Snapchat is a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. Colloquially, the app is often called Snap by its users.

Meanwhile, Snapchat’s developer is a public company also called Snap, confusingly. The company itself claims to be a camera company. (As such, it creates other products, including hardware, like Snapchat Spectacles.) Whichever you choose to call it, Snap is headed by co-founder Evan Spiegel.

One of the core concepts of the mobile app is that any picture, video, or message – aka snap – you send by default is made available to the receiver for only a short time before it becomes inaccessible. This temporary or ephemeral nature of the app was originally designed to encourage a more natural flow of interaction.

Use of snapchat

Snapchat is a free download from Google Play or the App Store. Once you’ve installed the app you’ll be prompted to sign up for a free account using your email address and DOB, and will be asked to choose a username. Choose this wisely, since you can’t change it later.

Snapchat will then request access to your contacts in order to find your friends who are already using the service. This is the recommended option, though you can do so manually if you prefer.

Taking your first Snap

When you launch Snapchat you’ll be presented with the view from your phone’s front-facing camera. You could hit the big circle icon at the bottom of the screen to take a photo, or you could tap and hold to take a video. But that would be to ignore the great many Lenses and filters that make Snapchat so popular with the younger generation.

Adding ‘Lenses’, filters and effects to Snaps

With your face in view, tap and hold on your face. You’ll see a white grid appear, then some new circular icons will appear to the right of the shutter button. You can scroll through these ‘Lenses’ to add various filters and effects. Those on offer are regularly updated.

Some filters will instruct you to open your mouth or raise your eyebrows to get the full effect. Some can also change your voice, for which you’ll want to record a video rather than a Snap.

Try it out, but remember your surroundings if you’re in public or you’ll get some odd looks!

Face Swapping

Toward the end of the available lenses are some that show two faces. This is Face Swap, and one of Snapchat’s most popular features. You can face swap with a physical person standing next to you, or using photos in your phone’s photo gallery (which has led to some very interesting swaps. Find out more about  how to use Face Swap here.

Editing your Snap

Having taken a Snap you’ll see new icons appear on the right edge of the screen. These let you add text, draw doodles and add stickers.

You’ll also find an option for add a second filter, and these are different options to what you will have seen the first time around.

The bottom option lets you set a time limit for how long your friends will be able to view your Snap. The beauty of Snapchat is that the image self-destructs after they’ve viewed it – unless they screenshot it, of course. 

Sending your Snap

Once you’ve taken a Snap you like, the idea is to share it with your friends. Tap the blue arrow icon to Send. Also at the bottom of the window are options to download the photo (so you can get an image that doesn’t have all the icons at the edge) or add it to your Story. We’ll come on to that later.Having hit the Send button you need to select a contact to send the Snap to. Pick a contact(s) from the list, or choose to add it to My Story, Our story or an existing group using the icons at the top. Now hit the blue send arrow again.

Snapchat Discover

Snapchat can be fun even for people who don’t like taking selfies. Swipe in from the right of the main screen and you’ll find Discover, which lists Snapchat Stories from your friends alongside big brands, magazines, newspapers and other popular Snapchatters. Just tap to view any that interest you.

Source 1:- www.techadvisor.com