How to Find and Add Friends on Snapchat
By Corbin HartwickUpdated on March 14, 2018
Using Snapchat isn’t much fun unless you have friends to send snaps to, and to receive snaps back from them! Without adding friends, who will you send your awesome pictures and videos to? Who will view your Snapchat story? In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to add your friends so you can get the most fun out of the app.
What is a Snapchat “friend”?
Simply put, your “friends” on Snapchat are your Snapchat contacts: other users whom you know and have connected with. They may be existing contacts who happen to use Snapchat, friends or family whom you invite to use the app, or new people you meet who invite you to be their “friend.”
How to find friends on Snapchat
There are at least 5 different ways to find new friends: search for someone’s user name, add or invite people from your device’s address book, scan someone’s “Snapcode,” find users near your current location who are also looking for friends, or send your Snapchat user name to other users.
You can also add or invite people in your device’s address book to Snapchat when you first set up your account. See our tutorial on how to use Snapchat for information on how to do that.
To Find and Add Friends on Snapchat
1. Turn on your mobile device and tap Snapchat to open it. Then, log in.
2. Tap the ghost icon in the top-middle portion of the screen.
3. Tap Add Friends.
4. Choose how you want to add your friends: by username, from your device’s address book, by snapcode, add people nearby, or share your username.
5 Ways to Add Friends on Snapchat
1. Find your friends by searching their Snapchat username.
Add someone as a friend by entering their corresponding user name. Tap where it says “User Name” and type in the user name of the person whom you want to add as a friend on Snapchat. When their user name appears below, tap the “+” button beside it to add them as a friend.
2. Import your contacts from your device’s address book. Invite those who don’t have Snapchat to join
To add a friend from your address book, simply tap the “+” icon beside one of your contacts to add them as a friend on Snapchat. If they do not already have Snapchat, you will instead send them a text message (using either Google Hangouts or your phone’s default texting system) inviting them to download and join Snapchat. If they do, then you will automatically add them as a friend.
3. Add your friends by scanning their Snapchat “Snapcode.”
Scan a photo on your mobile device to see if it contains someone’s “Snapcode.” A “Snapcode” is an image that hides information about you as a Snapchat user in the way that it is drawn. You can read more about Snapcodes here.
Simply tap one of your pictures to have Snapchat scan it, and see if it recognizes a Snapcode. If it does, the person whom it belongs to will be added as your friend on Snapchat.
4. Add other Snapchat users that are in your area.
Search for other people who are also using Snapchat’s “Add Nearby” function in your general area. If anyone is, their name will appear in the list; tap the “+” icon beside it to add them as a friend.
5. Share your Snapchat username on your social media accounts.
Create and send/post a message that shows others your user name, and provides a link that lets them add you as a friend. As you can see here, this can be done over several different services.
And that’s our explanation of what “friends” on Snapchat are, and how to find more of them. Be sure to check out the rest of our Snapchat course to learn more, including what emojis are and what they mean, as well as how to post Snapchat stories, and more!