Snapchat’s everyone setting allows users to share their snaps and stories with all of their friends on Snapchat. When the everyone setting is enabled, any snaps or stories posted will be visible to all friends, rather than just selected friends in certain groups or individuals. This setting makes it easy to broadcast content widely to your network on Snapchat.
How does the everyone setting work?
The everyone setting is located in Snapchat’s settings menu, under the “Who Can” section. There are three main options for who can view your stories in this menu:
- My Friends: Selected friends you choose
- My Friends Except: All friends except those you exclude
- Everyone: All friends plus anyone who adds you in the future
Tapping the “Everyone” option will enable sharing with your full friend list. Once this is turned on, any new snaps or stories will be visible to all friends automatically without needing to change settings each time.
Friends you add in the future will also be able to view your stories until you turn the setting back off. But any past stories posted before enabling the everyone setting will still only be visible to the audience they were originally shared with.
When would you use the everyone setting?
Here are some common situations when the everyone setting can be useful on Snapchat:
- Sharing public announcements and updates broadly
- Promoting content related to your business, brand, or creative projects
- Letting friends see highlights from events and trips
- Posting widely-relevant content that many friends would appreciate
The everyone setting makes your content visible to more friends with just one click. This can be helpful for distributing content efficiently when you want all your connections on Snapchat to see it.
How to enable the everyone setting
Enabling the everyone setting only takes a few taps within Snapchat:
- Open your profile by tapping the ghost/bitmoji icon in the top left
- Tap the gear icon to access your settings
- Select the “Who Can…” menu
- Tap the option for “Everyone” under Story Settings
Once enabled, the everyone setting will remain on for future stories until you manually disable it. You can switch it on and off at anytime.
Who can see stories with the everyone setting?
With the everyone setting enabled, your stories will be visible to:
- All current friends added on Snapchat
- Any new friends that are added in the future
- Friends who have not blocked you
Your stories will appear in the same way for these friends as they normally would. Friends can view your everyone stories multiple times for 24 hours in the way Snapchat stories work.
Factors to consider with the everyone setting
Some things to keep in mind when using the everyone setting:
- All friends means anyone you’ve ever added – even if you aren’t as close anymore
- It can expose your content more publicly if friends screenshot
- Overuse could clutter friends’ feeds who aren’t interested in all stories
- Story views could potentially increase, benefiting content creators
The everyone setting is best used occasionally for stories you think the majority of friends would appreciate seeing. Using it for more personal content shared infrequently may be better suited to the “My Friends” option.
Pros of the everyone setting
Benefits of sharing Snapchat stories with the everyone option include:
- Reaching a larger audience with less effort
- Increasing engagement when you have updates to widely share
- Promoting brands, businesses, events, and public content broadly
- Letting all connections feel involved in experiences
- Less worries about accidentally leaving someone out
Cons of the everyone setting
Downsides to keep in mind include:
- Oversharing content some friends may not want to see
- Potentially confusing or overwhelming friends’ story feeds
- Losing some control over who sees more personal content
- Increased risk if unwanted screenshotting or sharing occurs
- More obligation to keep close friends actively updated
How to disable the everyone setting
If you want to stop using the everyone setting at any time, disabling it is simple:
- Go back into your profile settings
- Tap on “Who Can…” again
- Change the Story Settings from “Everyone” to “My Friends” or a more selective group
This will return sharing to just the chosen audience moving forward. Past broader stories will still have been shared but new ones will only go to your selected circle.
Conclusion
Snapchat’s everyone setting gives users an easy way to share more publicly with their full friend list. While it can be beneficial for broadcasting certain content widely, it does reduce control over your audience. The everyone option works best occasionally, when you have updates suited for wider sharing. For most everyday Snapchat use, the “My Friends” setting targeting only closer connections is recommended.