Snapchat is a popular messaging app that allows users to send photos, videos, text and more that disappear after being viewed. One of Snapchat’s key features is the ability to customize your chat settings and preferences. This includes options like who can reach you directly, see your story, view your location and more. A common question for Snapchat users is whether the app sends a notification when you change these chat settings.
Does Snapchat notify other users when you change chat settings?
The short answer is no, Snapchat does not send notifications when you change your chat settings. Let’s take a closer look at why:
- Snapchat’s design priorities privacy and control for users. Notifying others when you update settings would go against this.
- There is no notification sent to your friends list or contacts when you alter chat settings like who can contact you, view stories and locations, etc.
- The changes are applied in the background without actively alerting other users.
- You can test this out by changing a setting like who can view your story and asking friends if they were notified. They will confirm no alert was sent.
Snapchat provides granular control over chat settings but doesn’t tip off other users when changes are made. You can adjust settings related to viewing stories, location sharing, direct messaging and more without worrying about mass notifications to your friends list.
Key chat settings you can change
Some of the key chat settings and preferences you can modify in Snapchat include:
Who can contact you directly
The default setting allows anyone to send you Chat messages directly. You can limit this to just your Friends list, or only people you have added via username or phone number. Restricting who can message you directly provides more privacy.
Viewing your Stories
By default, anyone can view the Stories you post. You can limit viewing to only My Friends or add custom Friends lists if you want more control over who sees your stories.
Seeing your location
Location sharing with friends is enabled by default in Snapchat. You can disable this completely or only share with certain friends by managing your location settings.
Visibility on Snap Map
Related to location, you can also opt out of appearing on the Snap Map which shows your friends where you are if location sharing is enabled.
Notifications when you screenshot
By default, Snapchat sends a notification when someone takes a screenshot of your snaps. This can be turned off so screenshots happen silently without notifying the other person.
Seeing your best friends
Your top 3 friend list based on Snapchat activity is private by default. You can make this public if desired so friends can see your best friends.
Deleting conversations
You can delete chat histories with friends which removes the messages from the app. This can help keep your chats tidy.
Blocking users
Blocking other accounts on Snapchat prevents them from viewing your stories or contacting you. You can block individual users as needed.
How to change your chat settings
Modifying your Snapchat chat settings is straightforward:
On Android
- Open Snapchat and tap your profile icon in the top left corner
- Tap the Settings gear icon in the top right
- Go to the Privacy section
- Adjust options like Contact Me, View My Story and more based on your preferences
- The changes are saved automatically
On iOS
- Open Snapchat and tap your profile icon in the top left
- Tap the gear icon to access Settings
- Go to the Privacy Controls section
- Adjust options like Contact Me, View My Story and more as desired
- The changes will be applied right away
Once you update settings like these, Snapchat will immediately restrict things like who can contact you and view stories without sending any alerts to your friends.
Key benefits of updating chat settings
Some of the key benefits of customizing your Snapchat chat settings include:
- Enhanced privacy – By limiting things like who can contact you and view stories, you have more control over your privacy.
- Reduce unwanted messages – Cutting down on who can directly message you can reduce unwanted chats.
- Control your audience – Restricting story views lets you curate who sees your content.
- Improve discoverability – Making your best friends list public can help friends find each other.
- Stay organized – Settings like deleting conversations keep your chats tidy.
- Avoid disruptions – Disabling screenshot notifications creates a smoother experience.
Adjusting these settings to match your preferences provides a better overall Snapchat experience.
Impact on friend interactions
Changing chat settings on Snapchat can influence how you interact with friends on the app in some cases:
- If you limit who can view your story, those friends will no longer see your posted content.
- Friends won’t be able to direct message you if you restrict who can contact you.
- Disabling location sharing means friends won’t see your location on the Snap Map.
- Turning off screenshot notifications means friends can screenshot silently.
- Blocking friends removes their access to viewing your profile and chatting.
But since Snapchat doesn’t notify users when you make these changes, they will only notice if they try to view your story, message you, etc. and find they no longer have access. The changes happen seamlessly behind the scenes.
Should you notify friends about changes?
Since Snapchat won’t alert your friends when you update chat settings, should you give them a heads up? That depends on the circumstance:
- For minor changes like disabling screenshots notifications, a notification isn’t necessary.
- If you block a friend, they will realize when they can no longer view your profile or chat.
- If you restrict story views, you may want to let close friends know directly so they understand why they no longer see your content.
- Changes to who can contact you may be worth a quick heads up to avoid confusion.
It comes down to the specific change and how much it impacts your friends. The more significant the change, the more worth it may be to directly give certain friends a heads up to avoid surprise.
Can you see if friends change their settings?
While Snapchat doesn’t alert your contacts when you modify settings, is it possible to notice if your friends change their chat settings? There are a few signs that settings may have been updated:
- If you can no longer view a friend’s story, they have likely updated their privacy settings.
- No longer seeing a friend’s location on the Snap Map could mean they disabled sharing.
- If your chats to a friend go through as Chat instead of DM, their messaging settings were likely changed.
- Not seeing someone on your best friends list could indicate they now opt out of sharing that info.
- If a friend disappears from Snapchat entirely, they likely blocked you.
Without getting a notification, these clues can tip you off that a friend may have updated their settings. But there is no definitive way to know what changes were made.
Should Snapchat add setting change notifications?
Snapchat clearly prioritizes privacy and control by not alerting others when you update chat settings. But would adding an option to notify select friends improve the experience? Potentially, but there are tradeoffs:
Pros of adding setting change notifications:
- Help avoid surprise when friends can suddenly no longer contact or view you
- Let close friends stay in sync on what privacy settings are active
- Increase transparency around how settings impact friends
Cons of adding notifications:
- Go against Snapchat’s priority on privacy and discretion
- Increase unwanted messages asking about setting changes
- Feature could be used to “troll” friends by repeatedly updating settings
- Additional notifications could be annoying and clutter the experience
The verdict
While notifications could be helpful for transparency in some cases, the potential downsides likely outweigh the benefits. Snapchat should likely keep their hands-off approach for privacy reasons and avoid unnecessary pestering of friends with update alerts. But they could provide an optional way to notify your Best Friends at your discretion.
Other social apps comparison
How do other major social platforms handle notifications when you change chat and privacy settings?
Like Snapchat, Facebook does not send alerts when you update things like your audience selector for posts, friends list organization and more. The changes occur silently in the background.
Instagram also does not notify your followers and friends when you change settings like your audience for stories, close friends list and similar.
On WhatsApp, changes to privacy settings and options like read receipts happen without actively notifying your contacts.
Twitter works similarly – altered settings like protected tweets and quality filters apply immediately without notifying your followers.
Key Takeaway
The dominant approach across social platforms is to avoid sending notifications when users modify privacy, chat and account settings. This underscores Snapchat’s choice to make changes seamlessly and discreetly.
Can Snapchat detect setting changes?
While Snapchat doesn’t outwardly alert other users, their systems are certainly capable of detecting when setting changes occur. Some ways they can track changes:
- User profiles have timestamps any time account settings are changed
- Changes require reconfiguring their databases and servers to apply updated rules
- Analytics track how often settings are changed per user
- A/B tests detect how chat settings impact user engagement
- Machine learning models predict which users may change certain settings
So even without visible notifications, Snapchat has insights into how settings are changed based on back-end signals and analytics.
Wrap Up
To summarize key points:
- No, Snapchat does not notify other users when you change chat and privacy settings
- Settings like messaging, story views and location sharing can be updated silently
- You may want to notify close friends directly about impactful changes
- Lack of notifications underscores Snapchat’s privacy-first approach
- While users aren’t alerted, Snapchat detects setting changes through analytics
Adjusting Snapchat settings gives you more control over your interactions without bombarding friends with constant update alerts. While notifications could improve transparency, the current hands-off approach ultimately provides a smoother and more discreet experience.