In the past few posts we have focused on  getting started with Snapchat.   You can read these posts, Snapchat for Beginners, Snapchat Friendships, and Snapchat Stories.

Here are some tips that will help you move beyond the beginner level and spice up your Snapchats to impress your friends.

Tips

1.  Service

You need Wifi or cell phone service to send and receive snaps. Ask your mobile provider for more information.

2.  Different Devices

You can access your Snapchat account from various mobile devices, not just your cell phone! Try using Snapchat on your iPad!

3.  Additional Services

Access additional services Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of your feed, and then tap “Manage” under “Additional Services.”  In this section, you can enable bonus features such as filters, front-facing flash, replay and special text, and also choose the number of best friends you want displayed on your “Send To” screen.

4.  Send Money

There is now a function that allows you to send money to contacts using Snapchat. It’s called Snapcash. Use at your own risk.

5.  Lighting

Want to take a selfie but the lighting is too dark? No worries. Snapchat has a front-facing flash feature that will white out your screen, brightening your photo. Simply turn on the flash by tapping the lightning icon in the top-left corner.

Here’s a shortcut for those who love snapping selfies. Instead of tapping the camera icon in the top-right corner of the screen to switch the camera view, just tap the screen twice. It will automatically switch from the rear-facing camera to the front-facing camera, and vice versa.

6.  Shortcut for Color

We all know you can pick a color by sliding the rainbow color bar. But what you may not know is that you don’t have to limit yourself to the color palette on the rainbow slider. Check out the next steps to find out how to draw with secret crayon colors.

Draw in the color white.

Draw with a white crayon by touching the rainbow color slider and dragging your finger to the top-left corner. Android users already have the white crayon built into their rainbow slider.

Draw in the color black.

Similarly, you can draw with a black crayon by touching the rainbow color slider and dragging your finger to the bottom. Android users already have the black crayon built into their rainbow slider.

Draw in hidden Happy colors.

You’ll notice when you drag your finger from the rainbow slider to the left or to the bottom of the snap, you’ll be able to use a bunch of in-between colors that aren’t available on the palette.

7. Add music to your Snaps

If you want to give your Snapchats a bit of cinematic sauce, you can add a soundtrack. All you have to do is start the music playing in the respective app, then jump into Snapchat and shoot away.

It’s not fancy, and some clever timing is required if you really want to nail the effect, rhythm-wise. But it’s a great way to outdo your friends’ amateur hour efforts.

8. Screenshots

You can take screen shots of your friends’ snaps. Remember, though, that your friends can also take screen shots of your snaps. Use good judgment when it comes to screen shot snapping.

9. Security

The idea of someone hijacking your Snapchat is scary.   To make your Snapchat more secure you’re going to want to enable two-factor authentication, something that came on-board in mid-2015 after a security breach got everyone scared.

Go to Settings, then tap on Login Verification. This lets you enable security that will text a verification code to your mobile should someone try to use your account on another device. So if your phone suddenly receives an unsolicited Snapchat code, something’s up. From this area in Settings you can also ‘forget’ devices signed in to your account, which is important if you’re lending someone your phone or tablet.

These tips should help you move you beyond the beginner level and use Snapchat most efficiently.  Our next post will focus on using Snapchat to market your business.

Happy Snapchatting!