Snapchat has become one of the most popular social media platforms, especially among younger users. A key feature of Snapchat is that messages, called snaps, disappear after being viewed. This creates a sense of privacy and ephemerality. However, you can still keep track of your conversations by turning on notifications when someone sends you a snap. But what happens if you turn off these notifications for a specific person?
You won’t get notified when they send you a snap
The most straightforward effect of turning off notifications for someone on Snapchat is that you will no longer be notified when they send you a snap. Typically, when someone sends you a snap, you will get a push notification on your device saying “[Person’s name] sent you a snap!” This lets you open the app and view the snap right away.
However, with notifications turned off for a particular person, you will no longer get these alerts when they send you a snap. The only way you’ll know if they’ve sent you something is to manually open the Snapchat app and check. This means it’s easy to miss snaps from that person.
Their score will still go up if you don’t open the snap
On Snapchat, each user has a “Snapchat score” which is a number that goes up when you send and receive snaps. Even if you have notifications turned off for someone, their score will still increase if they send you a snap, regardless of whether you open it.
For example, say your friend has a score of 250. They send you a snap, but because you have notifications off, you don’t see it right away. An hour later, you open Snapchat and see their score is now 251, even though you haven’t opened the snap they sent. This is because the act of sending the snap, not you opening it, caused their score to go up.
So turning off notifications does not prevent someone’s score from increasing when they send you snaps – it simply prevents you from getting notified about these incoming snaps.
Their snap will remain unopened until you check Snapchat
With notifications turned off, any snaps that person sends you will remain unopened until the next time you manually open Snapchat. The snaps will stay in your inbox, but will not have a “opened” indicator next to them like normal.
So if your friend sends you a snap on Monday that you don’t see because notifications are turned off, that snap will still be waiting for you unopened on Tuesday when you next open the app. It will not open or disappear until you view it.
The sender will be able to see that you have not opened their snap yet. They can tell because the arrow icon next to the snap they sent you will still be bold and lit up, indicating delivered but not viewed.
You won’t get notified about their stories
In addition to direct snaps, Snapchat also has Stories, which are photos and videos shared to your followers which disappear after 24 hours. Just like with direct snaps, you can get notifications when one of your friends posts a new story.
If you turn off notifications for someone, you will no longer get alerts when that person posts a new story. The only way you’ll know if they have a new story is to check their profile within Snapchat. Otherwise, it’s easy to miss when people you have notifications turned off for post stories.
Their name will not show up in your chat list
On the Snapchat chat screen, you normally see a list of your recent conversations with friends. This makes it easy to quickly open a chat with someone you’ve been snapping.
But if you disable notifications for a friend, their name will no longer show up in this chat list. Even if they send you a snap, their name will not appear on the list of recent chats unless you manually open the chat. Turning off notifications essentially removes them from your chat roster.
You can still send them snaps
It’s important to note that turning off notifications only affects how you receive snaps, not how you send them. You can still send direct snaps and add stories as normal to a friend who you’ve disabled notifications for.
You just won’t get any indication on your end when they view your snaps or if they reply. The only way to tell if they responded is to periodically check the chat manually. So disabling notifications is a one-way street – it stops snaps from coming in but does not stop them from being sent out.
They will not know you’ve turned off notifications
A user is not notified if someone else has turned off notifications for them on Snapchat. There is no way for your friends to know that you’ve disabled alerts for their snaps unless you actually tell them.
This means you can turn off notifications for certain people without them being aware. They will continue sending you snaps as normal even though you aren’t getting notified about them.
The only indication to the sender is if they notice you opening their snaps much later than normal. But there is no official alert they receive from Snapchat if you’ve turned them off.
You can easily turn notifications back on
In Snapchat’s settings, you can easily turn notifications on or off for any of your friends. So if you change your mind after disabling notifications for someone, you can simply go back into the settings and toggle them on again.
Just go to the person’s profile, click the gear icon, and on the next screen turn on “Receive Notifications”. This will immediately re-enable getting alerts when that friend sends you snaps.
It won’t affect your Snapstreaks
One of the most popular features on Snapchat are “Snapstreaks” – when you and a friend have snapped each other at least once per day for several consecutive days. This builds up your streak count as the days go on.
Importantly, turning off notifications for a friend does not affect your Snapstreaks with that person. Even if you aren’t getting notified of their snaps, as long as you send each other at least one snap per day, your streak will stay intact.
So feel free to disable notifications without worrying about messing up your cherished streaks. Just be sure to check in manually each day to keep the counts going up.
You’ll miss their snaps if you’re not careful
One risk of turning off Snapchat notifications for certain people is that it becomes much easier to miss their incoming snaps. Without push notifications alerting you, the only way you’ll know if someone has sent you something is by regularly checking the app.
It’s very possible to go many hours without realizing a friend has sent you several snaps, simply because you weren’t notified. So only disable alerts for people if you’re willing to take responsibility for frequently checking the app so as not to miss anything.
It can be used to “mute” unwanted interactions
One useful aspect of turning off Snapchat notifications is that it can act as a soft “mute” for someone who is bothering you or who you don’t want to hear from as frequently. Rather than unfriending or outright blocking them, you can simply disable notifications.
This subtly conveys that you don’t want constant pings from them on your phone. And it reduces the chances of you passively opening and engaging with their snaps. So if used judiciously, this feature can help manage unwelcome interactions.
Conclusion
Turning off Snapchat notifications for someone prevents you getting alerts when they send you snaps or stories. While this can lead to missing their messages, it may be useful for reducing distractions from certain people. Overall, notifications are useful for staying on top of conversations, but can also be disabled if the pings become bothersome.
Key takeaways:
- You will no longer get notified when that person sends you snaps or posts stories
- Their Snapchat score can still go up from sending you snaps
- Snaps they send will remain unopened until you manually check them
- You can still send snaps to them as normal
- It does not affect your Snapstreak counts
- Can act as a “mute” for unwanted interactions
At the end of the day, Snapchat notifications are a useful tool for staying connected. But occasionally turning them off for certain friends can be helpful too. Just be cognizant that you’ll need to put in extra effort to ensure you don’t miss anything important!