When it comes to sharing snapshots of your daily life, there’s no easier method than using Snapchat. While most photo sharing applications, like Facebook and Instagram, are about permanence and the ability to share and view content from any moment in your life, Snapchat keeps things temporary.
There’s no feed, no way to view content from months and years ago. Instead, everything on Snapchat is temporary, from the photos and videos you send your friends directly, to the Stories you upload on Snapchat directly that last just twenty-four hours before disappearing forever. Sure, you can save content to your Memories in order to view or send it later, but that content remains visible only to you, your own personal feed of moments.
This sense of temporary posts and sharing makes it one of the most viable social networks for 2018, but unfortunately, like any social network, you’ll need friends on Snapchat in order to make the platform fun.
Snapchat encourages plenty of interacting with your friends list on the platform, from creating Snapchat streaks with your best friends by sending them a photo or video every day, to using Bitmoji or sharing your location using the map feature inside Snapchat. Plus, you’ll want people to view the Stories you post, and likewise, you’ll want to view the Stories of your closest friends and family.
Whether you’re looking to find new friends, a specific person, or just meet new people on Snapchat, it can be tough to know where to look. Unlike Facebook, which makes it easy to search for a person’s name, Snapchat uses usernames and other display names to occasionally hide real identities. If you’re trying to find someone on Snapchat, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive into this guide on looking for people within Snapchat.
Adding Friends You Know
For most people, you’re likely looking to add people you already know in real life, be it your friends, family, or co-workers. Snapchat has gone out of their way to make it easy for their users to add people, but generally speaking, it’s also become a bit confusing to add people, considering the amount of options and choices you can have for adding your friends on the platform. Let’s count down every method on Snapchat, so that no matter whether you’re in person or a thousand miles away, you can add every one of your friends on Snapchat, no problem.
Method One: Snapcode
If you happen to be in the same place as your friends, this is the easiest way to exchange Snapchat information. Simply open the app, tap on your profile icon in the top-left corner of the display, and you’ll view your Snapcode, a special QR code-style utility designed to help you meet new people. With this open, have the friend who wants to add you open up Snapchat on their phone and, while on the camera viewfinder, roll over your Snapcode. Your code will automatically activate the ability to add you on Snapchat, and you can accept their request from there.
We should also mention that, if you can screenshot someone’s Snapcode, either through a messaging app or if that person shares it on Twitter or Facebook, you can select the “Snapcode” tab from the “Add Friends” option in Snapchat (see below for more detail), and select the screenshot that has the Snapcode in it. You’ll automatically gain access to that person’s account, just like if you had scanned the Snapcode in the traditional manner.
Method Two: Username
The profile page has another option that makes it easy to add each other: the “Add Friends” selection. This entire menu has a few options we’ll need to detail here, but we’ll start with the most obvious one: typing their username into the box at the top of the page. By adding your friends with their username, you can easily just enter the shared name and click the add button. It’s also worth noting that, if someone has added you back, you can quickly and easily approve them by clicking on the “Added Me” option at the top of the page.
Method Three: Contacts
That same “Add Friends” page that we referenced above has another tab for your contacts. It’s simple: once you give permission for Snapchat to access your contacts, you can view every friend who has their phone number synced in both your contacts and on Snapchat. Adding them is as quick as pressing a button, which makes it easy to automatically add them back to your account, right from the phone number.
Method Four: Links
Head back to the profile page on Snapchat and look for the “Share” button on your account, to the right of Bitmoji and Trophies. Tap on Share, and you’ll gain access to the ability to share your username and your snapcode automatically. Tapping on Share Username opens up the ability to send a message, tweet, Facebook post, or any other share-enabled content from your phone, complete with an autofill message informing people to add you on Snapchat and a URL they can click on to load the page.
Selecting Share Snapcode does the same thing, but it gives you a photo of your Snapcode instead of the link, which allows people to easily add you using the methods we described above. Likewise, clicking on the link or scanning the Snapcode will let you easily add your friends and family, if they choose to share their account with you through these methods.
Method Five: Suggested Friends
Remember that first page on the “Add Friends” option? There’s a huge list of “Quick Add” suggestions below this, which gives you a list of suggested people that you may know, based on mutual friends, location, and more. Hit the “Quick Add” button to add them, and you’ll automatically send a request to add them on Snapchat without much effort at all.
Adding People You Don’t
Though this will likely be used by far less people, it’s worth noting that you can add people you don’t know in real life through Snapchat, just by looking in the right place. Whether you’re looking to build out your friends list or you’re just looking to add people you met in online communities, here’s where to look for new friends on Snapchat.
Method One: Reddit
You might think that the Snapchat subreddit would be dedicated to discussing Snapchat news and updates, along with any issues with the app. But r/Snapchat is actually a community dedicated to helping Snapchat users of all types find and meet new friends to talk to on the platform. The general concept is simple: you post your age, your gender and requested gender, and a small description in the headline, and then the subreddit’s bot automatically makes it easy for people to direct-message you on Reddit in order to exchange usernames or Snapcodes. The subreddit doesn’t allow for NSFW content, though there are other communities you can find out there that allow for just that.
Method Two: Website Communities
While we recommend Reddit as the go-to place for meeting new people on Snapchat, we also must admit that meeting new people through websites like AddMeSnaps is also an option, especially if you’re unfamiliar or unable to use Reddit.
The tool is simple: enter your username, your age bracket, and the gender of who you’re looking for. We’ll admit that this tool is better used for people to find hookups or other flings through Snapchat, but the option is there if you want it. Remember to be cautious when connecting with users online, as you never know who might be on the other end of a connection with you.
