Does Snapchat Automatically Add your Contacts When you Join?

Does Snapchat automatically add your contacts when you join? How can I add friends to Snapchat? How do I find people  to follow on Snapchat? Can I make it so only friends can contact me using Snapchat? By the end of this tutorial you will know the answers to all these questions and be well on your way to mastering this most confusing of social networks.

Snapchat’s star may be falling but it remains immensely popular. It also remains difficult to understand and confusing to those new to the social network. Where Facebook is mostly idiot-proof, Snapchat takes a lot more work to get to grips with. The questions posed in this tutorial are some of the many we receive about this particular social network so I know I’m not the only one who took a while to get to grips with it!

Does Snapchat automatically add your contacts when you join?

Snapchat does not automatically add your phone contacts when you set up a new account. You can select to add your contacts should you wish to but nothing happens without your consent.

How can I add friends to Snapchat?

Adding friends on Snapchat is one of the few things that are genuinely simple. You can add them using a feature called Quick Add, by their Snapcode, Username or from your contacts list.

Quick Add is a Snapchat recommended feature where the app suggests people you might like to add. Snapcodes are unique identifiers that act like QR codes. Take a picture of their Snapcode to add them. You obviously need to be with the person you want to add but is the easiest way to add friends to Snapchat.

1. Open the camera from within Snapchat.
2. Take a picture of the person’s Snapcode.
3. Select Add and you’re done.

You can also search for the person’s username or handle from within the app.

1. Open Snapchat and select Add Friends.
2. Type their username into the box and hit Search.
3. Select Add once you have found who you’re looking for.

You can use your phone contacts list if you know one or some of them are on the network.

1. Open your Snapchat profile page and select Add Friends.
2. Select Contacts from the list and find Friends.

Depending on your phone settings, you may have to grant Snapchat permission to access your Contacts List. Once you do, the list should populate and you can add them individually as you need.

How do I find people to follow on Snapchat?

If you want to find people to follow who aren’t friends IRL, you can do that too. The all-conquering Reddit has a Snapchat group specially for newbies that lists people who are happy to chat with strangers in a (mostly) non-creepy way. There are also a bunch of websites listing groups you can join to begin getting to grips with the app and to make friends. Google is your friend there as these sites come and go.

Can I make it so only friends can contact me using Snapchat?

To get the most out of any social network you have to put yourself out there. You also have to balance that with being practical and avoiding jerks and timewasters. You can control to a degree how visible you are on Snapchat. You can restrict your profile visibility to friends and restrict who can see your stories.

Restrict who sees your profile:

1. Open Snapchat and open your profile.
2. Select the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Select Who Can and then Contact Me.
4. Select My Friends.

Restrict who sees your Stories:

1. Open Snapchat and open your profile.
2. Select the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Select Who Can and then View My Story.
4. Select My friends or Custom.

I won’t repeat this ad infinitum but you can control who sees what from this section of the Settings menu. I would definitely suggest changing the See My Location setting within here as Snapmaps can be more informative than you might realize.

If you find yourself being added by randoms on Snapchat, you can ignore or block them if you feel the need. Not all random people are going to be annoying but some inevitably will be.

To block someone on Snapchat:

1. Select your profile within Snapchat.
2. Select Added Me to bring up a list of those who have added you.
3. Select the person you want to block.
4. Select Block from the options.

You can ignore them instead if you prefer. Either way, once done they will not be able to contact you through Snapchat or bother you again.