How To Tell When Someone Was Last Active on Snapchat

Snapchat is probably the most privacy-friendly social media platform out there. While you can tell when someone was last online on Instagram or Facebook, it’s not possible on Snapchat. It doesn’t provide a straightforward way to tell whether or not a friend is online—but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Here’s how to tell when somebody was last active on Snapchat.

Why You May Not Determine Someone’s Last Active Status on Snapchat

Snapchat privacy settings ensure anyone can stay hidden from their contacts in their friends list. One can choose to stay hidden from the map using Ghost mode.; control who can view their stories, turn off activity indicators, and so on. You cannot determine the last active status if someone has used all these options to hide their online activity.

How To Tell When Someone Was Last Active on Snapchat

Now that you know about Snapchat’s various privacy settings, check out some workarounds that can help you determine someone’s online status.

1. Check the Snap Maps

Snap Maps is a feature that shows where your friends are while using the app as long as the person doesn’t use Ghost Mode, which always hides their location. If Snap Maps is enabled, you should be able to see when they last used Snapchat and where they were when they were online.

Remember, spoofing your location on Snapchat is possible, so this method is not foolproof. 

To check a friend’s Snapchat activity using Snap Maps, follow these simple steps:

1. Open Snap Maps and look for your friend.
   
2. Select their Bitmoji from the map.
   
3. Look at the gray status text underneath their name.
   

You will see one of a couple of messages: Seen Now if they are currently online in a location, “Seen 23m ago” if they signed off a while ago, or “Last seen” if they signed off over a couple of hours ago.

Do note that Snaps submitted even in Ghost mode will reveal the person’s location even with Ghost Mode.

2. Check Their Profile

Besides the flashing green light feature that tells you who is and isn’t online, the easiest way to see when someone was last active on Snapchat is to look at your feed. 

Look for Snaps or Stories posted and see when they were posted. If they recently uploaded a Story, you know they are likely online or recently active. 

If there is a big time gap between a post and the present time, they may not be online. You can check their Snap score to determine whether they were recently online. The Snap score goes up with every Snap and communication, so if the number changes, they’re likely active on the app.

3. Send a Snap or Message

You can also send a Snap or message and monitor the status. However, you must constantly look at the chat to know when they see your Snap or message.

1. Launch Snapchat on your phone and open the chat with that person. 
2. Send a message or Snap and wait for them to see it. 
3. When they open your message, a small Bitmoji avatar of that person will appear in the lower-left corner of the chat.
   

It indicates that the person is active on Snapchat. That person’s Bitmoji avatar will disappear when they leave the chat, so you must keep the chat open and watch closely to know exactly when they were active. Also, when someone is in Ghost Mode, their Bitmoji will hold up a blue sign with a ghost icon.

4. Opened Snaps

If a person watches your old Snaps, the status will change to Opened. However, it will be tricky as you must keep the chat open and watch it. If the notification says Delivered, the recipient is offline or hasn’t opened the Snap. 

5. Blue Dot Check

If you open the individual chat screen simultaneously with the person you want to chat with, it will show a blue dot or Bitmoji on the screen. This only works if you both are on the chat screen at the same time.

Other than that, there’s no way to know whether someone is currently using the app. Unless, of course, you’re chatting with them at that moment.

How to Disable Your Active Status in Snapchat

Wondering how your friends can know your active status on Snapchat? That’s due to the activity indicator that appears under your profile.

1. Open Snapchat on your phone.
2. Tap on your Bitmoji avatar in the top left corner. 
   
3. Tap the settings icon (gear symbol) in the profile section. 
   
4. Scroll down to Privacy Control and select Activity Indicator.
   
5. Toggle off the Activity indicator switch. 
   

Snapchat Makes Last Seen Difficult

While Snapchat doesn’t show your last active status, there are a few ways to check when someone was recently active on the app. But, the activity indicator is the only official way of seeing someone’s online status.

Next, you might want to learn how to send old pictures as new Snaps on Snapchat. 

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