Snapchat is an app that pays attention to transparency but does not give information on user activity: here’s how to understand with alternative methods if a person is online
Social networks were born to allow people to increase their social networks, communicate with acquaintances, friends, relatives and colleagues and make new acquaintances. There are many platforms that, over time, have spread to every part of the world among people of all genders and ages. Among the most used ones, especially among the youngest, is Snapchat.
It is an application that allows you to exchange images, videos and messages with people online securely and transparently. Snapchat tries to provide its users with all the information they need to communicate honestly with their interlocutors. To achieve this, it has come up with numerous features.
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Snapchat, The Platform Features Appreciated By Users
- The first version of Snapchat was launched in 2011, and since then, the number of subscribers to the platform has grown exponentially. Users immediately appreciated the ability to send multimedia messages, called snaps, to people close to them, such as friends and relatives or those they know directly on the application.
- On Snapchat, you can send photos in private messages, which can only be viewed once by the recipient. Stories that remain visible on the user’s profile for only 24 hours can be created. Modern features, which other successful social networks, such as Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, have also taken over.
- Snapchat is highly transparent and tries to provide subscribers with all the necessary information. For example, you can know when a photo was taken, or a video posted in the stories was shot.
- The writers have the opportunity to know the list of users who view their content shared through stories. It is always shown when someone opens and reads a chat to facilitate conversation.
See Last Seen On Snapchat: Is It Possible?
- Despite the excellent transparency of the platform and the intent to show as much information as possible, Snapchat is also attentive to the privacy of its subscribers. There is data that he avoids making public, such as the last access on the application.
- Therefore, no one can know when a user was connected for the last time or if he is online at a given instant. There is no indication, as happens on other social platforms where there are, for example, green dots indicating that a person is online or the most recent access time.
- To understand if a friend or acquaintance has used Snapchat, you can check some elements which provide a general indication of the user’s activity on the platform. You can always see if she has opened a shared chat or viewed a snap sent to her.
Publishing New Stories
- Snapchat users frequently post new stories to their profiles. One of the easiest ways to understand if a user has recently accessed the application is to check that they have shared new content.
- Stories remain viewable for 24 hours. If they are present, it means that the activity took place during the day. At the top left of the screen, just below the name of the user who posted it, information about when the sharing took place is provided. If it’s only a few minutes old, the person who made it is likely still online.
- It’s a simple method but only sometimes applicable. When content is loaded from the camera roll, it doesn’t show the moment it was posted but the date the video or photo was clicked on the phone.
Turn On Notifications For Friends
- If you always want to stay up to date with your friends’ activity, you don’t need to check their Snapchat profiles for new content frequently. Turn on story notifications for the desired user.
- This way, whenever the selected person publishes a story, you will receive a notification on your device in real-time. This will indicate the user’s online presence, and a possible conversation can be started.
- To do this, open Snapchat and tap your profile icon in the top left. Then tap the settings icon on the top right of the screen and select the Notifications item. Turn on those related to Stories of friends.
- To manage notifications more precisely, select Manage Notification History from the settings. Select, among friends and followed content, all those from whom you want to be notified when they publish a story. Click Done to save.
Viewing Stories
- Once a story is published, you know who views it. The viewer list is sorted chronologically from newest to oldest. Whoever sees the content last appears at the top of the list. If the affected user is among the names above, they may still be online and active on Snapchat.
View on Snap Map
Using Snap Map, you can know the last time users who decided to take advantage of this feature were active on the platform. Having identified the person on the map and selected his avatar, it will be possible to find out when he last used the application.
If ‘Just now’ appears, the user is online. Not all subscribers can use this feature: those who decide to apply the ghost mode will not appear on the map.