Snapchat is a popular social media app that allows users to send photos, videos, and messages that disappear after being viewed. One of Snapchat’s key features has always been the ability to quickly send snaps and chats to friends through shortcuts on the camera screen.
However, in recent updates to the Snapchat app, the company removed the shortcut bar from the camera screen that contained shortcuts to quickly send snaps to friends. This has left many users wondering why Snapchat got rid of these shortcuts and where they went.
The old Snapchat camera shortcuts
Up until a few months ago, the Snapchat camera screen had a shortcut bar at the bottom that allowed you to tap on friend’s faces/avatars to quickly send them a snap. This provided easy access to your favorite and recent contacts to send snaps to without having to go into your full friends list. It helped make the experience of snapping back and forth with friends quicker and more seamless.
The shortcut bar contained up to eight contacts and would automatically update based on who you snapped with most frequently. So your best friends were always just a tap away when you opened the Snapchat camera.
This shortcut bar had been a staple of Snapchat for years, so many users had gotten used to having those quick shortcuts for their main Snapchat contacts. It made composing and firing off quick snaps on the fly incredibly simple.
Why Snapchat removed the camera shortcuts
In July 2022, Snapchat began testing removing the shortcuts bar from the camera with certain users. Then in September 2022, Snapchat confirmed that they were removing the shortcut bar from the camera for all users globally.
According to Snapchat, here were some of the main reasons they decided to remove the shortcuts:
- Wanted to simplify and “declutter” the main camera screen.
- Found that many users didn’t use the shortcuts bar frequently.
- Wanted to provide more screen real estate for creative tools.
- Planning to introduce other new ways to quickly chat with friends.
Essentially, Snapchat felt the shortcuts bar was underutilized and took up valuable space on the camera that could be better served by housing creative tools that more people use regularly.
While power users found the shortcuts incredibly useful, data showed more casual Snapchatters were not tapping into those shortcuts very often. So Snapchat decided to nix the feature entirely for the time being.
Where did the Snapchat camera shortcuts go?
When Snapchat removed the shortcut bar, it didn’t provide any immediately replacement for the feature. So for now, those convenient shortcuts are just gone from the Snapchat camera.
The only way to snap a friend directly from the camera now is to use Snapchat’s voice commands and say something like “send a snap to [friend’s name].” But you have to manually activate voice commands each time, so it’s definitely not as seamless as just tapping on a shortcut.
If you want to send a snap to friends the old fashioned way, you now have to fully exit the camera, open your friends list, select the friend, then return to the camera to take the snap. It takes significantly longer without those handy shortcuts.
Will Snapchat bring back camera shortcuts?
Snapchat hasn’t ruled out reinstating some form of shortcuts feature in the future. But they have said it would likely look different than the previous implementation.
Some possibilities Snapchat has hinted at include:
- Shortcuts that dynamically change based on time of day.
- Location-based shortcuts.
- Shortcuts based on your interactions over the past day.
- Being able to pin your best friends as shortcuts.
The company essentially wants to provide a smarter, more relevant shortcut system vs static shortcuts. But implementing that type of dynamic system will likely take some time.
In the meantime, Snapchat is focusing on other areas like improving the chat experience, developing more creative tools, and enabling new engagement methods like their Snapchat+ subscription service. Restoring some form of shortcuts doesn’t seem to be a top priority right now.
How to send snaps fast without shortcuts
While the loss of the shortcuts is a big change, there are still a few ways to quickly send snaps without shortcuts:
- Use voice commands – Just say “send a snap to [friend’s name]”.
- Pin friends as favorites – You can pin up to 8 friends for quick access.
- Use Chat – Open a chat with a friend and snap from there.
- Share to Story – You can post to your story and tag friends.
- Use Snap Map – See friends on the Map and snap them directly.
None are quite as fast as the old camera shortcuts. But these methods can help compensate a bit until Snapchat hopefully reinvents its quick send features.
Conclusion
Snapchat removing the shortcut bar from the camera came as a surprise to many loyal users. While Snapchat felt it was underutilized, many found it invaluable for quickly communicating with their closest friends. For now, those beloved shortcuts are gone with no definitive return in sight.
Some alternatives like voice commands and pinning favorites help fill the void a bit. But ultimately, Snapchat has some work to do to reinvent quick snapping in a smarter way if they want to match the speed and simplicity of the old camera shortcuts bar.
Hopefully they can introduce dynamic shortcuts or similar features sometime soon. But for now, users will have to learn new ways to quickly send snaps and chats in Snapchat without the trusty shortcuts they grew accustomed to.
| Year | Major Snapchat Updates |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Snapchat first launched |
| 2012 | Introduced ability to send videos, not just photos |
| 2013 | Launched Snapchat Stories |
| 2014 | Introduced geofilters based on location |
| 2015 | Launched Discover section for content from media partners |
| 2016 | Added stickers and ability to draw on snaps |
| 2017 | Introduced augmented reality Lenses |
| 2018 | Redesigned chat section with improved messaging |
| 2019 | Launched Snap Camera desktop app for PC and Mac |
| 2020 | Added Snap Map integration and Actionmojis |
| 2021 | Introduced Spotlight short-form video feed |
| 2022 | Removed shortcuts bar from camera screen |
Snapchat has evolved a lot since it first launched in 2011 as a simple ephemeral messaging app. Some of the major milestones over the years include introducing Stories, augmented reality Lenses, the Discover section, and Spotlight. The recent removal of the camera shortcuts bar marks one of the biggest changes to Snapchat’s core functionality in many years.
Snapchat User Statistics
Here are some key statistics on Snapchat’s user base and usage:
- Daily active users: 363 million (as of Q4 2022)
- 49% of users are between 13-24 years old (as of 2022)
- 90% of daily active users contribute to Stories (as of 2019)
- Over 5 billion Snaps are created every day (as of 2021)
- The average Snapchat user opens the app 30 times per day (as of 2020)
- Average user spends 30+ minutes per day on Snapchat (as of 2020)
- 77% of Snapchat users primarily use the chat feature (as of 2022)
Notable stats show the massive scale of Snapchat in terms of daily active users, engagement through Stories, and predominance of messaging/chat as the primary use case. Snapchat’s large and active predominantly young user base makes the app highly attractive to brands and advertisers as well.
Top Snapchat Features
Here is a breakdown of some of the key features that Snapchat offers:
- Snaps – Send photos or videos that disappear after being viewed.
- Stories – Share collections of snaps that live for 24 hours.
- Chat – Instant messaging with chat, audio, and video calling.
- Discover – Watch curated content and stories from media publishers.
- Lenses – Augmented reality lenses and filters for enhanced selfies.
- Maps – View heatmap of snaps taken around locations worldwide.
- Spotlight – User generated short videos like TikTok.
- Memories – Cloud storage for old snaps and stories.
- Snap Originals – Exclusive made-for-Snapchat shows and content.
Snapchat has evolved far beyond just being a messaging app. It now offers a robust suite of engaging features around messaging, content consumption, creativity tools, and sharing experiences.
Conclusion
Snapchat experienced significant growth over the past decade to become one of the largest social platforms, especially among younger users. Removing the camera shortcuts bar takes away one of the app’s signature features for quickly messaging friends. While Snapchat plans to eventually reinstate a smarter version of shortcuts, this change leaves a notable hole in the app’s functionality for the time being.