Hello WhipperSnappers! Snapdragons? Snapchatters. Those who practice the sorcery of Snapchattery and use Snapchat religiously. Whatever you call yourself, you use the Snapchat app and you love it and you kinda kill it. Your Snaps are always on fleek because you’ve followed our Snapchat Profile Picture & Selfies Guide, and now you have set your sights to taking over the Web. But what about checking Snapchat online? In this guide, we’ll go over how to login to Snapchat and use Snapchat for free on the web.
NOTE: Snapchat Login Online has been updated as of March, 2020
But being on Snapchat on your phone all the time has gotten expensive. Despite the Snapchat app being free and its built-in ability to delete snaps, it adds up on the old monthly bill. And while there is a great feature called Travel Mode in which you can set the app to only load content when you are in a place to receive it for free, when you log in to snapchat and receive/send Snaps, you’re using data. Even if you have an unlimited data plan, after a while, your provider will begin to throttle your service which makes your Snapchat app and everything on your phone slower.
So we’re here to let you know how to Check Snapchat Online completely free and save some of that data for Kik…or take the money you saved off your phone bill or from your refund and invite a friend to coffee for some one-on-one, face-to-face interaction. Yeah, it’s a thing, and one you should enjoy. If you use Snapchat, you’ll understand that the Snapchat app works wonders for these sorts of encounters.
I dislike the phrase ‘Internet friends,’ because it implies that people you know online aren’t really your friends, that somehow the friendship is less real or meaningful to you because it happens through Skype or text messages. The measure of a friendship is not its physicality but its significance. Good friendships, online or off, urge us toward empathy; they give us comfort and also pull us out of the prisons of our selves—John Green
Snapchat Online Pitfalls
First let’s talk about what not to do to log-in to your Snapchat app for free. You may have seen all sorts of apps and websites offering you remote access to your Snapchat account. This is usual; such third-party systems always crop up around any popular app or service. And while some of these may be on the up and up, and truly are designed only to help Snapchatters gain access to their accounts however they wish.
However, there are third-party websites that are not trustworthy. Even an Android emulator might be risky. Heck, apps on Google play store or the App Store have been known to have a bug or security breach.
It’s important to know if the website you’re using is legitimate or not. Here are some clues that you should not trust a website:
- Contact the website. Check the contact tab and call or email. If you can’t get a hold of anyone or the number is not in service, the website might be fake. Note that it’s not enough that the website lists phone numbers. Anyone can make up phone numbers. Just ask Tommy Tutone. No, you’ll need to actually try to contact them through this.
- Look at the address and see if it is verified by Google; there should be a location or safety ranking displayed in the address bar.
- Google has this nifty safe-browse thing. Just paste http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=” in front of a web address and you’ll see whether it’s suspicious or not.
- Really look around on the website. Are there grammatical errors? That’s a red flag that this site was put together hastily (so it can be abandoned just as quickly — the old “fly by night routine”). Are they promoting weird stuff that has nothing to do with the website? That’s a sign that the site is nothing but a transparent money grab. Get out of there ASAP.
- Our personal favorite: reddit. Loads of technically savvy bastards on that site and they generally will let you know if a website’s legit or not. No one can overturn the hidden bits of code on a website like a small Reddit army mobilized by righteous indignation, so if the site you’re looking at has something dodgy, they can tell you.
While researching this topic, we came across three websites that claim you could (and should) use them to check your Snapchat. One of them even claimed that it was the only way to check online. We ran all three through the Google safebrowse trick previously mentioned and they came up okay; however, threads on reddit raised some flags. Bottom line: we don’t advise using them, so we didn’t link them. If you do, do so at your own risk and if you’ve had success, let us know in the comments.
REMINDER: Don’t click on anything that looks shady!!! It will ruin your life. As a general rule, apps are safest when downloaded directly from the Google Play Store or App Store; however, since we’re looking for an online alternative to use Snapchat, we’ll have to use a website.
Snapchat Online
Now here are a couple of trusted, tried and true methods to check your Snapchat online for free.
Snapchat Online via Snapchat Online
So, the day has finally come. Snapchat has heard the call of the thousands who use Snapchat and who were using third-party methods to manage their accounts online, and they do have an access portal… of a sort. You can log in to “Snapchat online” at Snapchat‘s website. Yeah, it’s right there.
Now, admittedly, this is only for managing stuff in your account. From the official Snapchat website, you can download your Snapcode, change your password, unlock your account, and delete your account. No, you cannot send and receive messages through this system, but those functions are nonetheless things that many users appreciate being able to do on their computers, and if you use Snapchat, you will eventually use them.
Changing a password, unlocking an account, and deleting an account are all things that you may be called on to do online at some point, say (heaven forbid) you should lose your phone.
And as for being able to download a Snapcode, well, it’s just more convenient. Moving and managing files tends to be much more doable on a laptop or desktop than it is on a mobile device, so if you’re planning on keeping your Snapcode on hand for embedding into emails, putting on your website, or maybe even putting at the end of your YouTube video, now you can.
For a fuller understanding of what Snapchat does and does not allow you to do with your Snapcode, take a look at the Snapcode Usage Guidelines from their support site. This will help you use Snapchat Snapcodes more effectively.
Sometimes changing passwords and such is a bit more secure if you’re on a PC. But even if you wanted to use your phone, you can go to Snapchat’s website and login from your web browser.
But perhaps, you just wanted to save some data (read: money), and so you would rather your mobile device not enter into it at all. That’s cool. We have a method for that as well.
Snapchat Online via Manymo
Regular readers will recognize this Manymo we speak of and recall that every time we use the phrase Manymo, we all break into a rousing chorus of “Mary Moon” (or “New Age Girl”) by the Crash Test Dummies. They sound alike and they’re both intellectuals. Unlike Mary Moon, however, Manymo is not a vegetarian. Insert digression here.
We dig Manymo as a means of checking our messaging online. From Kik to Snapchat, Manymo is the place to go! That’s not their slogan. Manymo is an Android emulator; it mimics the Android operating system in an online interface. Very cool. Basically, you can sign up for Manymo and from there launch a web based emulator in which to upload your desired app to play. Play time is fun!
We love this option because you don’t have to download anything, which is something that is a real requirement for a typical Android emulator (great as they are). And like we said, it works with any app that is compatible with Android. All you need is a Google Play Store account and a device registered to that account.
Here’s how you get your Snapchat fix using Manymo:
- Once you have signed up for Google Play, next download the Snapchat app from your Google Play Store account. This will be an .apk file. Save it to your desktop, downloads folder, or maybe a special folder you’ve set up specifically for Manymo. This file will be necessary to upload into the Android emulator. I suggest saving the file for future use if you want to use this trick often.
- Head over to Manymo and sign up for an account by entering in your information. You can choose whether to use the free version or pay for the premium version.
- After you’ve logged in, you can start to launch the emulator. At the top right you should see an option to launch the emulator with an app. You can choose what resolution and size you want the emulator to be. I recommend using a resolution that is similar to the computer screen you are using so it matches well.
- After you click launch, you will want to navigate to the Snapchat .apk file you downloaded earlier and from there upload it to the emulator.
- This will automatically let you access the Snapchat app and use Snapchat via your computer.
- Launch Snapchat and log in with your username and password. (If you forgot your username and/or password, click the links to recover them on the emulator; or remember you can change them now on the Snapchat website).
A couple of notes on this method:
- You can totally view what your friends have sent you but you def need a web camera with Snapchat approved specs if you want to send anything out into the universe. It’s hit and miss.
- There have been reported instances where the app recognizes you’re using a different device and wants to ask your permissions again. Accept and it will work properly.
- You can use Manymo for free after signing up, but there is a $9 version that might suit you should you choose this is the primary way you want to use your favorite apps.
- You can’t save a session and you have to go thru the above process every time so, maybe you want to reserve it for the end of the month when money’s tight and data is LOW.
If that all sounds like a bit too much of a hassle and you’re okay with downloading a more permanent solution, check out an emulator like Andyroid. This option gives you the ability to setup your profile on the emulator and come back anytime you want without having to set it up again and sign in to everything. And it’s free. If you’re down to download.
So there it is, kids. Y’all have fun and be safe out there.
There have been a few exciting additions and changes to the Snapchat app since we posted this article. Here are some of the ones we find most interesting:
Story Explorer
Story Explorer represents a very interesting shift in Snapchat’s overall strategy thus far. Up until this point, everything in Snapchat app is very much about the self. Photos you take, or which are sent to you, which delete when you say so, so you can be free to send the images that you want to. Add in a series of lenses and filters that let you further personalize images of you, and you see where this going.
But when Stories were first introduced, it really started to shake this up. Now it became less about the specific image, and more about a moment that was unfolding. And while this could still be used to log a progression of selfies, it encouraged users to record events that were going on around them.
Story Explorer takes this to the next level. Now, when you see a Story that a friend has posted, you can swipe up in order to see more Stories about this moment. It is not too far from the new Moments feature that Twitter has rolled out, which allows users to keep tabs on events as they are unfolding, regardless of whether they know the trendy hashtag to follow, or if they’re following the right people. It’s the digital equivalent of the “Breaking News” report, allowing you to step away from your pursuits for a moment in order to follow huge things that are affecting the world around you.
This is likely a another move in Snapchat’s push to reach out to an older an older user base — both to maintain an existing user base as it ages, and also to reach upward into more sought for (by advertisers) demographics. I’m going to keep my eye on this to see how it all plays out, because the central design of Snapchat really problematizes this approach.
Twitter is all about short communications, but short communications that last. Thus, it makes sense for there to be a Moments function — a way for you to map how world events affected people based on their brief responses. But the self-deleting nature of Snapchat’s content means that these stories won’t last, and so won’t give any indication in the future of what people in the past felt about events while they were still present. (I’ll give you a minute to unpack this last sentence.)
Now, I’m not flat-out saying that Story Explorer won’t gain any real, meaningful traction. I just see this as a difficulty, and I’ll be curious to see how it unfolds.
Friend Calling
The Snapchat app is built upon your contact list within the app, ensuring that you have a plethora of people to Snap to whenever you decide to document yourself and your life. Sharing has always been the name of the game, but the amount of interaction that you can have with your contact list has always been of interest to the Snapchat developers. It wasn’t too long ago that we saw “friend emoji” for the first time, that spoke to us directly about how much we Snap certain people, and who we Snap to the most.
Still, that doesn’t mean that we were expecting to get full audio and video calling features added to the Snapchat app, which is exactly what ‘Chat 2.0’ brought us. Now, when you’re browsing through your friend list, just swipe right to gain access to these new features. They’re exactly as efficient as you’d imagine them to be, and they can happen on your cellular data or a Wi-Fi network. I recommend the latter unless you like your data plan being eaten alive.
Perhaps it’s a testament to the popularity of iMessage and FaceTime; Snapchat isn’t the first app to receive such features, but it might be one of the last that we were expecting to.
Stickers
Here’s a simpler addition that’s nonetheless making a splash in peoples’ Snaps. The “stickers” feature added a new button to the top of the Snap window in Snapchat. Using this, you can place customizable graphics on your snaps after you’ve shot your pictures or video.
What makes them exceptional? The fact that there are currently 200 stickers at your disposal, and you can rotate or resize them to any degree that you’d like. We’re all in favor of allowing people to brighten up their snaps in new and interesting ways, and stickers do just that.
Photo Uploads
Heading back to your friend list, it’s perhaps pertinent to point out that you can also upload photos directly to your contacts! Seems simple enough, but Chat 2.0 enables you to do this simultaneously during your audio or video call. Doing an upload at this time will overlay the photo on your phone’s screen, so you and your contacts can talk media while sharing media and also looking at media.
What are your thoughts on these new features? Does it make you want to get SNAPCHAT ONLINE even more? Are you going to get Gatorade Dunked? Will it show up in a Story that you post? Let us know what you think about these new developments by posting them to the comments.
