How to Use Effects in Snapchat

Learn filters. Snapchat filters are added after you take a photo/video and they add charm to the photo or video without much effort. Simply swipe the screen left or right to view the filter, or read the information below.

Make sure the Snapchat app is up to date. To see all the filters, you need to update to the latest version of Snapchat. If you haven’t updated the app in a while, this will help you see more filters. You can update apps on Google Play Store or iPhone App Store.

• See how to update Snapchat for more information on updating this app.

Turn on the filter. Swipe down on the camera screen and tap the ⚙ icon in the upper-right corner to open the Settings menu.

• Scroll down and select Manage Preferences in the “Additional Services” section of the menu.
• Push the slider next to Filters to the “On” position. The slider will now be green.

Enable Location Services on Snapchat. You must provide your location to Snapchat if you want to use any of the filters. Some filters need to access your location, such as city or temperature filters.

• On iOS – Open the Settings app. Scroll down and select Privacy and then select Location Services . Push the slider next to Location Services to the “On” position if it’s not green. Next, scroll down and select Snapchat and then tap While Using the App .
• On Android – Open the Settings app. Select Location and turn on “Location” at the top of the menu.

Take pictures or record videos. Start with the following camera monitor. Tap the big circle to take a photo; Hold the circle to record a video of up to 10 seconds. For photos, tap the number ‘5’ icon in the circle at the bottom left corner of the screen to choose how long the photo will appear before it disappears — up to 10 seconds. For video, if you want to mute it, you can select the sound button at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Add filters to photos or videos. Swipe the photo right or left to add different filters. Location-related filters won’t show up if Location Services isn’t turned on. You swipe left or right to see the available filters.

Add Geofilters (Geographic Filters). These filters show up based on your current location.

• Filter by city – usually includes some version representing the city you’re staying in (usually the city name).
• Community filters – include Snapchat-approved work that anyone can provide for their location, so you’ll see these too. However, users are not allowed to place brand logos. ^[3]
• On-Demand Filters – Companies or users can pay to design a filter specific to a location. In this case, the filter is allowed to include the brand logo.

Try the movie-specific filter. This group of filters changes the state and sound of the video.

• Rewind – 3 arrows pointing to the left, this filter allows to rewind video, including audio.
• Fast Forward – rabbit icon (no lines), speed up video and audio (but not as fast as Faster Fast Forward).
• Faster Fast Forward – the rabbit icon between the two lines, this filter is used to double the speed of the video. The sound is also a lot faster.
• Slow Motion – snail icon, this filter slows down video and audio.

Try the data filter (Data). This filter group takes data from the time the photo/video was taken to add information to the photo/video.

• Battery Life – this filter is related to the battery status of the device you are using. It has a green smiley and fills up when the battery is full; or the icon is red and empty when the device’s battery is extremely low.
• Time or Date – this filter allows you to add the time when the photo or video was taken. Tap the displayed hour to switch to the date. Tap again to adjust the layout of the date.
• Temperature – adds the temperature corresponding to the current location. Tap the temperature to choose degrees Celsius instead of degrees Fahrenheit.
• Speed – adds movement speed at the time you take a photo/video. If you are not moving, the parameter is 0 KM/H or 0 MPH — touch the metric to change the unit of measure.

Try the color filter (Cpor). This group of filters changes the color of an image or movie clip.

• Black & White – makes photos or videos black and white.
• Vintage or Saturated – make a photo or video look bold and “old”.
• Sepia – renders photos or videos a fawn color.
• Bright – makes a photo or video brighter.

Try adding more filters. To use multiple filters, swipe to select a favorite filter first. Next, press and hold the photo with one finger and swipe with another.

• You can use up to 3 filters for an image (Geofilter, Data, Cpor) and 5 filters for video (Geofilter, Data, Cpor, Rewind and one of the three speed filters). ^[4]

Turn on the Lens effect to find the face swap option. The Lens effect in Snapchat has two different face swap options: You can swap faces with someone in the same frame, or you can swap faces with photos stored on your device.

• To turn on Lens, you press and hold a face in the Snapchat camera screen. After a while, the Lens effect will appear at the bottom of the screen.

Tap the yellow face swap option to swap faces with the person next to you. This Lens effect can be found at the bottom of the list with two smiley faces.

Move the template on the screen to your face position. When you select the yellow Face Swap Lens, you will see a pattern of two smileys displayed on the screen. Move the template to two face positions and Snapchat will swap them.

• Your face will show up on your friend’s body and vice versa!

Select Purple Face Swap Lens to swap faces with photos stored in your phone. This lens shows up at the bottom of the list with a smiley face and camera icon. After selecting this effect, Snapchat will scan the photos on your device and find photos with swappable faces.

Tap the face you want to swap. Snapchat will scan your photos and find photos with faces. You can’t choose photos yourself, you can only rely on Snapchat’s face recognition.

• This effect swaps out a face in an existing photo with the one currently in-camera – pretty much like creating your own Lens style right in the moment!

Add text to photos or videos. Tap the photo or video. Type the message, then press Done, Enter, or tap the screen. The text will automatically be added to the center of the frame.

Turn on the text effect by tapping the “T” icon in the upper right corner of the screen. This will enlarge the text, center/left align, or remove the caption bar.

• Tap the “T” icon a second time to align the text in the center of the page.
• Tap the “T” icon a third time to return to the original response.

Move, resize, rotate text. Touch and drag to move the text. Narrow two fingers when touching the text to zoom out. Enlarge the text to increase the size. Rotate two fingers at the same time on the text to rotate it to the angle you want.

Change text or font color. Touch the text and the screen will display the color palette along with the keyboard. Touch the palette to change the text color. When done, select Done, Enter, or tap the screen.

• If you want to change a character or word, select the character or word and touch the palette to change the color.

Add stickers, emojis or Bitmoji. Tap the Stickers button at the top of the screen (looks like a sticky note, to the left of the “T” icon). Swipe the list left and right to see different categories of stickers. Scroll down to see the selection. When you touch an emoji, it will be added to the photo, then you can drag it to the position you want with your finger. You can add as many stickers as you like.

• Close two fingers when swiping to zoom out the sticker, or spread two fingers to zoom in. You can also rotate the sticker by placing two fingers on the ends of the sticker and rotating it at the same time.

Pin stickers to objects in the video. When you press and hold a sticker on the clip, the clip will pause and allow you to drag the sticker over the object in the frame. Drop the sticker on the object to “pin”, and the sticker will follow the object as it moves across the screen.

Try filter design tips with stickers or emojis. First, you choose a sticker. Next, you enlarge the sticker to lose its original shape, placing focus on the edge of the sticker or emoji. The blurred edges can be used as special filters for photos or movies. ^[5]

Make stickers. Tap the scissors icon at the top of the screen, then use your finger to outline some part of the video, such as a human face. Now you have created a sticker that can be moved with your finger anywhere on the screen.

• The newly created sticker will show up at the top of the Stickers menu when you tap the sticky note icon.
• You can remove a sticker on a photo by holding and dragging it over the sticky note icon, which will usually turn into a trash can icon as you move the sticker closer.

Draw on photos or videos. Tap the crayon icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Select a color from the palette. Touch the screen to draw. Once done, tap the crayon icon one more time.

• If you’re not satisfied with what you just drew, tap the undo button (with a curved arrow pointing to the left) to the left of the crayon icon.

Find hidden colors. While black and white are built into Android, the color slider on iOS does not display these two colors. To get white, drag the color slider to the top left corner. To get the black color, drag the color slider down to the middle of the bottom corner. To get a gray color, drag the color slider to the bottom left corner. To select colors that are not displayed (such as pale pink or burgundy), you move the color slider across the screen.

• Android devices also have a “transparent” color. You just need to press on the screen until the full color palette is displayed, then choose a “transparent” color.

Take a photo. Follow these steps if you’re using an old version of Snapchat and don’t want to update to the new version.

Add sepia filter to photo. Tap the photo to open the text box, then type Sepia… .

• An ellipsis is required.

Add black and white filter to photo. Tap the photo to open the text box, then type b&w… .