Snapchat is a popular social media app that allows users to send photo and video messages that disappear after being viewed. One of Snapchat’s key features is the ability to easily find and connect with friends and contacts on the app. But where exactly does Snapchat get your contacts from when you first sign up?
Phone Contacts
The main place that Snapchat finds your contacts is from your phone’s contact list. When you first install and open up Snapchat, the app will ask for permission to access your phone’s contacts. If you allow it, Snapchat will scan through your phone contacts and try to match the names and numbers with existing Snapchat users.
This allows Snapchat to quickly build up your friends list by suggesting contacts you already have in your phone who also use Snapchat. You can then easily find and add your friends on Snapchat without having to manually search for their usernames.
How Snapchat Syncs Contacts
Behind the scenes, Snapchat uses your contacts’ phone numbers to match them across users. Phone numbers tend to be unique identifiers that don’t change as often as someone’s Snapchat username may. So by using your phone’s contact list, Snapchat can reliably sync up friends and contacts between different users.
Snapchat states that they anonymize and encrypt phone numbers before syncing them across their service. This means they claim to keep the actual phone numbers private while still allowing the matching functionality.
Accessing Contacts
In order to access your phone contacts, Snapchat requires you to grant permission when you first install the app. On iPhone, you will get an iOS prompt asking if you want to allow Snapchat to access your contacts. On Android, you will get an Android permission prompt asking the same thing.
If you deny access, Snapchat will not be able to sync your contacts. However, you can go into your device settings later to change this permission if you want Snapchat to access your contacts after initial setup.
Snapchat Usernames
In addition to phone contacts, Snapchat also allows you to manually find friends by username. You can tap “Add Friends” in Snapchat and either search for specific usernames or browse through suggestions.
Snapchat curates suggested friends based on your contacts, location, and other factors. So even if you haven’t synced contacts, Snapchat may still recommend friends for you to add this way. You can also ask your friends for their Snapchat usernames to search for them directly.
Finding Friends by Username
Adding friends by username allows you to connect with Snapchat users even if you don’t have their phone number. For example, you can find celebrities, brands, influencers, and others on Snapchat by using their unique username.
Usernames are distinct from phone numbers on Snapchat. You can change your username at any time, while your connected phone number will remain constant. Usernames also have to be unique across all Snapchat accounts.
Username Privacy
By default, your Snapchat username is public and searchable by anyone. However, you can change your settings to make your username private. This will prevent people from finding you by searching for your username.
The only way someone can add you if you have a private username is if they have your exact username to search for. So you would have to provide your username directly to someone in order for them to find your account.
Snapcodes
In addition to phone contacts and usernames, Snapchat also lets you add friends through Snapcodes. A Snapcode is a graphical QR code that is unique to each Snapchat user. You can find your own Snapcode on your profile screen in the app.
To add someone via Snapcode, you would scan their Snapcode using the Snapchat camera. This instantly adds them as a friend without needing their username or contact info. Snapcodes provide a quick visual way to connect with people on Snapchat.
Scanning Snapcodes
You can scan a Snapcode directly from someone else’s phone or from a printed version. Many people will post their Snapcodes online or have them on business cards to make it easy to get added. Snapcodes contain encoded user data that lets Snapchat instantly find the associated account.
The Snapchat camera feature allows both parties to quickly scan a code in real life to connect. You can scan Snapcodes even if you don’t have someone’s username or phone number to otherwise find them.
Custom Snapcodes
In addition to the default Snapcode, you can also create a custom Snapcode with your own design. This way people can identify your code more easily. Custom Snapcodes are a popular way for brands, artists, influencers and others to promote their Snapchat.
The core functionality still works the same – scanning the code will add the person. But custom designs allow for creative branding and marketing opportunities through Snapcodes.
Facebook Connections
Snapchat also looks at your connections on Facebook to recommend new friends. When you first link your Facebook account, Snapchat will match your Facebook friends to Snapchat users and suggest people for you to add.
Linking Facebook allows Snapchat to see your friends list and find overlaps with people who also use both platforms. This provides another source of contact discovery for Snapchat beyond just your phone’s contacts.
Linking Accounts
To link your Facebook account, you can go into the settings menu in Snapchat and select “Add Friends.” There will be an option to “Connect Facebook” which will walk you through the account linking process.
Once your accounts are linked, Snapchat will be able to match your Facebook friends and see which ones also have Snapchat. You can then easily add those mutual connections right in the Snapchat app.
Facebook Permissions
Linking your Facebook account to Snapchat requires allowing Snapchat to see your Facebook friends list and basic profile info. Snapchat says they will not post anything to Facebook on your behalf when you connect the accounts.
You can unlink your Facebook from Snapchat at any time in your Snapchat settings. This will remove Snapchat’s access to your Facebook friends list.
Contact Uploads
Snapchat also allows you to directly upload your phone contacts and Facebook friends list. This provides all your contacts directly to Snapchat for matching friends rather than needing to sync one-by-one.
Uploading contacts in bulk can help quickly build up your Snapchat friends list by matching large batches of contacts at once. You may also be prompted to upload contacts if Snapchat is having trouble syncing certain contacts automatically.
How to Upload Contacts
On iOS, you can upload contacts by going to Settings > Add Friends > Sync Contacts. On Android, go to Add Friends > Import friends. Then simply follow the prompts to upload your contacts from either your device, SIM card, Facebook or other sources.
Snapchat will then work to match the uploaded contacts with Snapchat accounts. You will see a list of any matches ready to be added as friends in the app. Any contacts without a match will be ignored.
Uploading Recents
In addition to full contact uploads, you can also choose to upload your recent calls history. This will specifically check if any recent numbers you’ve been in contact with have matching Snapchat accounts tied to their phone number.
Recent call uploads can help surface new Snapchat friends if you’ve recently had calls with people not already in your main contacts. It works similarly to a full upload, just with a subset of recent contacts.
Snapchat Friend Suggestions
Finally, Snapchat will also recommend new friends for you to add right in the app itself. These suggestions are based on your existing contacts, location, shared connections, and Snapchat activity patterns.
Friend suggestions provide another discovery mechanism to help Snapchat users continually find new people to connect with on the platform, even without direct contact uploads.
Who Snapchat Recommends
Some factors that influence who Snapchat may suggest as friends for you include:
- Existing contacts who have recently joined Snapchat
- Snapchat users with several mutual friends with you
- Popular Snapchat users in your geographic area
- Snapchat users you may have been interacting with
- Contacts of your Snapchat connections
Accepting friend suggestions is an easy way to quickly grow your Snapchat network and find relevant people to connect with. Suggestions appear on the Add Friends screen within Snapchat.
Improving Suggestions
Snapchat gets better at providing relevant suggestions the more you use the app. Adding friends, messaging different users, interacting with content, and allowing contact syncs will improve the friend recommendation algorithm over time.
You can also go into Settings > Manage > Friend Suggestions to refine what kinds of suggestions you want to see. Turning off “Quick Add Friends” will stop suggestions of popular accounts in your area.
Conclusion
Snapchat leverages your existing contacts and connections from multiple sources to suggest new friends and grow your network. Key sources Snapchat pulls contacts from include:
- Phone contact list
- Manually added Snapchat usernames
- Scanned Snapcodes
- Linked Facebook friends list
- Bulk uploaded contacts
- Algorithmic friend suggestions
By syncing your contacts, connecting social accounts, scanning codes, and accepting suggestions, you can quickly build up a robust friends list on Snapchat for sharing and messaging. Snapchat’s friend recommendation features help users continually find new contacts over time based on their activity patterns and network.