The Chat screen in Snapchat is the most traditional looking screen, yet the most confusing. When you swipe right from the camera view, you’ll get to the Chat screen. This is essentially a list of conversations – like in iMessage or WhatsApp. Except it works in the most convoluted way.
If someone sends you a snap/chat directly, this is where you’ll see them. If you reply to someone’s snap, you’ll see that here as well.
Chats in Snapchat disappear instantly (unless you specifically save a message, one at a time, by tapping and holding on the message). So if you go into a chat, see a message, reply to it, come out and go back in again, the message will be gone. Yes, this is annoying, but it’s the way Snapchat is.
There is a way to save messages that are really important. You can tap on an individual message and it will then be saved. Saved message have a grey background. Tap it again to un-save.
The Chat Screen
When you try to tap a person’s name from the Chat screen, you’ll see that nothing happens. You need to swipe right on the name to get to the chat view.
Once you’re here, type something and tap on “Send” to send it along.
Above the keyboard you’ll see 5 icons.
The first icon lets you select photos from your camera roll. The second starts a voice call. The shutter button in the middle lets you send a snap directly from here. The video button will instantly start a video call with the person. The last icon lets you pick emojis.
And when you’re viewing someone’s snap, in a story for example, just swipe up to chat and send a message as a reply to the snap you’re watching.
In case, you missed it, check the previous parts of our Snapchat series:
