Does Snapchat Flip Your Face?

In recent years, the art of taking the perfect selfie has become so popular that almost every photo and video-sharing platform out there has devised its own unique array of tools for it.

Whether it’s special filters, cheeky bunny ears you can stick on top of your head, or, indeed, some of the more advanced face augmenting pieces of software, the companies behind these updates know full well how popular these are and how influential they’ll become if they come up with a perfect selfie-taking mechanism.

Having said that, it’s really no wonder that these big platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat have rather different approaches to how a perfect selfie should look.

In this article, we’ll answer the age-old question: Does Snapchat Flip Your Face? (When you’re talking a selfie, of course, not in real life. Imagine if taking just an innocent picture of yourself resulted in some sort of massive face disfiguration. Surely, that would be too steep a price to pay, even if it’s for a selfie!)

Right then, folks, let’s see what we have here.

The Curious Case of Selfies and Mirrored Images

One of the things we take for granted when it comes to taking selfies would surely be the position of our face. More often or not, we’re preoccupied with using cheeky filters to make our pictures more interesting, us more beautiful, or just add some of those ears or what have you.

Not many people know, however, that there’s a secret mechanism built into most of the selfie-taking apps that automatically flips your face the ‘right way’, so when you take the picture, you get exactly the same image you expected to get. It’s only when some app developer decides to abandon that mechanism do we see the uncomfortable truth upon taking a selfie, the natural orientation of the photo is to be flipped! It’s only afterward, during the process of saving it to your phone’s memory, that the software puts it back in the desired position.

Now, this may not sound like a big deal, but some users find the platforms which leave your faces flipped as you save them pretty annoying and struggle to understand why anyone would do such a thing to a devout app user. Namely, folks with some sort of minor facial imperfection, such as a crooked nose or an asymmetrical chin may find that the flipped image of themselves makes them look less pretty at best, and downright ugly at worst!

The Snapchat’s ‘Tough Love’ Policy

Turns out, not all social media platforms are necessarily on board with the face-flipping-the-right way idea, and Snapchat is surely one of the most notable examples. The thing is, if you use Snapchat to take your selfies, it will flip the image so that it reflects how other people see you in real life rather than how you see yourself while taking it!

Now, the decision to set their selfie mechanism like this has caused some confusion in the community of Snapchat-frequenting selfie addicts. Indeed, those in pursuit of the perfect selfie image may feel underwhelmed by what Snapchat is offering them.

However, it should be noted that it’s all a matter of perspective, really. If you’re a sort of person who likes to modify your photos so that you always turn out in your best possible light, then yes, Snapchat’s selfie filter may not be the best overall option for you. Those Snapchat designers aren’t messing about and improving anything that’s not naturally beautiful, it seems. So, tough luck to all those poor souls who thought they can hide their facial faults and strike a selfie at a perfect angle in order to do it.

A Quick Note: You shouldn’t really be self-aware about your facial faults, as they are what makes you unique. Have a crooked nose? So does that French actor from Les Visiteurs and he’s considered attractive! (It’s Jean Reno! We just googled it. A great film Les Visiteurs, we encourage you to watch it if you haven’t already.)

So Does Snapchat Really Flip Our Faces?

Yes, it does. Or, to be more precise, it just leaves them in their original form. Now, some may like this approach to taking pictures of yourself, some not so much, but the point here is- don’t feel too worried about how your face looks in a selfie. As long as there isn’t a fly on your forehead as you’re taking the picture, chances are you’ll turn out just fine, so don’t sweat too much about it! We hope you found this article helpful and wish you many successful, if flipped, selfies!