Stay Safe on Snapchat

This article teaches you how to keep your Snapchat account private and safe from harassment.

Steps

Don't add people you don't know to your friends list. Sometimes Snapchat will recommend other users based on mutual friendships between them and one of your best friends. Since Snapchat can be a very personal experience, stick to adding the people you know you can trust.
Block strangers who try to contact you. Repeated attempts at contact from people you've ignored can count as harassment. It's best to simply block them.
- You also shouldn't feel bad about blocking people in your contacts list who send you unwanted or inappropriate snaps.
Don't send inappropriate snaps. Even though you trust the friend or friends who you're snapping, you have to assume that anyone can see the snap as soon as it has been opened.
Keep your location private. While it can be tempting to add a snap with a geofilter of your neighborhood to a public story, it's safer to use filters that don't reveal your location.
- The same notion goes for snaps of addresses and license plates.
Don't give out personal information over Snapchat. Again, you clearly trust the friend to whom you're sending the information if it's personal. However, your snaps stop being private and become public as soon as you hit the send button, so anything you wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with people outside of your contact list is best left for in-person conversation.

Open the Snapchat app. Snapchat resembles a white ghost on a yellow background.
- If you aren't logged into Snapchat, tap Log In and enter your username (or email address) and password.
Swipe down on the camera screen. Doing so will open your profile page.
Tap ⚙️. It's in the top right corner of the screen.
Scroll down and tap Contact Me. This is in the "Who Can..." section of options on this page.
Select My Friends. This ensures that only people who have both added you on Snapchat and been approved by you will be able to send you snaps.
Tap the Back button. It's in the top left corner of the screen.
Tap View My Story. This is directly below the Contact Me option.
Select My Friends. Only friends will be able to see the content you post to your story.
Tap the Back button.
Tap Show me in Quick Add. This is below View My Story.
Slide the Show me in Quick Add switch left. It will turn white. "Quick Add" places your name in a suggested friends list for other users, so disabling it means that other Snapchat users will have to look you up by your name or username to add you.
Tap the Back button twice. This will take you back to the user profile page.

Make sure you're on the user profile page. You should see your yellow snapcode at the top of this page.
Tap My Friends. It's close to the bottom of the screen.
Tap a friend whom you wish to block. You may have to scroll down to find them.
Tap ⚙️. This is in the top right corner of your friend's name card.
Tap Block.
Tap Block again when prompted. This will officially block your selected friend.
Select a reason for blocking the person. Your options are:
- Annoying - Choose if the person in question is simply a nuisance.
- I don't know them - Choose if someone you don't know is attempting to contact you.
- Inappropriate Snaps - Choose if you've received inappropriate or abusive snaps from this person.
- Harassing me - Choose if the person in question has harassed, threatened, or intimidated you.
- Other - Choose for any reason not listed above.
Tap the Back button. It's in the top left corner of your screen. Doing this should take you back to the user profile page where you can continue safeguarding your account.

Tap ⚙️. It's in the top right corner of the screen, and will open Snapchat's Settings menu.
Tap Login Verification. This is toward the bottom of the screen. With Login Verification enabled, you'll need to enter both your Snapchat password and a code before you can log into your Snapchat account.
Click the green Continue button. It's at the bottom of the page.
Select SMS. You should see your phone number listed here. Selecting this option will prompt Snapchat to send a code to your phone number.
Open the text message from Snapchat. The message will say "Snapchat Code: ######. Happy Snapping!"
- Make sure you don't close the Snapchat app when you do this.
Type the six-digit code into Snapchat. You'll do this in the text field in the center of the "Login Verification" page.
- If you didn't receive the code, tap Send Code Again at the bottom of the page.
Tap Continue. As long as the code you entered matches the one Snapchat sent you, you will now have to enter your password and a verification code sent to your device whenever you try to log into Snapchat.
- You can tap Generate Code at the bottom of the screen here to create a code that will allow you to log into your Snapchat account on another device if you lose your phone. To skip this section, tap Skip in the top right corner of the screen.

You decrease the risk of having your photos inappropriately screenshotted by only sending photos to individual people instead of using the "story" feature.