Snap Map: How to use Snapchat’s new feature well

Snap Map, Snapchat’s new function which offers to find friends by locating them on a map and to discover all the public snaps in a given geographical area, attracts as much as it worries. Here are some tips on how to use it well.

Activate the Snap Map

To activate the Snap Map, all you have to do is open the app, place your fingers on the screen and pinch as if to zoom out. Once the map is open, the app will ask you to choose between several options: to be visible to all your friends, to a selection of friends or to choose Ghost mode. The latter, activated by default when the function is launched, allows you to disappear from the map, an option to which we will come back later.

This choice can be changed at any time either by tapping on their avatar or by tapping on the settings wheel at the top of the screen.

Choose an Actionmoji

Users who already have a Bitmoji avatar will see it appear on the map. The others will only see a colored silhouette (green, yellow, pink…) which is rather unattractive. A detail that will certainly push them to create a nicer avatar!

To create an avatar, you have to go back to the home screen of the app and tap on the ghost at the top left of the screen. At the top left, the phrase Create a Bitmoji appears. Clicking on it prompts you to download the Bitmoji app, connect to it with Snapchat, and follow the instructions. Once the avatar is created, it appears on the map and is visible to all your friends.

Small detail, these new avatars are created to match the user’s situation from information that he has agreed to share (his location, the speed of his movements or the time). So if you are moving fast on a road while using Snapchat, your avatar will be shown in the car.

Find your friends on Snap Map

To find your friends on the map, there are several options. You can simply see them appear as soon as you open the function. But if they are not visible even though you know they have geolocation enabled, then they are not in your immediate environment. To find them, you can:

– tap on your avatar and scroll the white bar at the bottom of the screen to find a friend. Its thumbnail will show it on the map.

– tapping on the search bar at the top of the screen indicates the friends on the map. Just tap on the name to find your friends.

– type the name of your friend in the search bar. If it is locatable a window will indicate it. Otherwise, the app will just offer to send it a message (white window at the bottom of the screen).

Then, by clicking on a friend’s Actionmoji, you open their Story (if they have one in progress) or you can leave them a message.

See public snaps from around the world

The other part of the Snap Map is to allow you to see public videos published around the world in the Our story section, which are grouped by location. Again, there are several ways to access it.

The first is to touch the import card where. The color (from blue to red) on the location indicates that there are more or less snaps available. In the capture below, there are more snaps published in Pennsylvania at Hazleton than in Williamsport. Clicking on the area gives access to the snaps. We also notice on the map of places or events, a concert, a demonstration, a match … highlighted by Snapchat. Just click on one of them to access the linked snaps.

The second way to access these snaps is to open the search bar and choose from Featured Stories or Stories on the Map. If you open the search bar while your avatar is visible, you will be offered Stories nearby.

A zoom on the map can also make it possible to discover videos that one would not have noticed at first glance as the area is “pale blue”. And if you click somewhere where no snap is available, the app will tell you.

Publish a public snap

For one of your snaps to be visible to everyone, simply choose to publish it in Our Story once shot. It can then be used by Snapchat to illustrate a location and will be visible to all users, but anonymously.

The app is based on machine learning for displaying snaps. Thus, those who have been shot at the Eiffel Tower who show the monument, who have added a sticker linked to the place and who have tagged the tower will have a better chance of going up in the Eiffel Tower “compilation”. Others will simply be published “alone” on the map.

Disappearing screens

If you don’t want anyone to know where you are, because the function is extremely precise, there are several ways to stop showing up on the Snap Map. The first is to choose Ghost mode. You can access it either by tapping on the settings wheel at the top right of the screen, or by tapping on your avatar. On your screen, you will then appear with a ghost hiding your face and disappear from that of your friends.

Another solution: close the app. This action allows you to no longer appear on your friends’ screens. They will therefore not be able to follow the slightest of your movements. But as soon as you reopen the app, your avatar will reappear on Snap Map.

Finally, you can disappear from the map by avoiding opening the app for eight hours. And last option not to appear on Snap Map, never to have used the function!

Download Snapchat for Android
Download Snapchat for iOS