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If you’re already Snapchat friends with everyone in your contact list, you might want to look for new people to add and meet. In that case, the best place to look is in your vicinity. Fortunately, Snapchat made it easy to find new friends who live or stay near you.
Read on to learn how to use the Snap Map feature to find Snapchat friends near you.
What is instant map?
Snap Map is Snapchat’s unique feature that shows the locations of all active users who have chosen to share that information.
When users post a Snapchat story, a blue dot will appear at their location. Snapchat calls these places “hotspots.”
Your Bitmoji will mark your current location when you visit the Snap Map. All blue dots surrounding your area indicate accessible contacts in your vicinity.
Therefore, Snap Map is the best way to make new friends on Snapchat. Unlike the normal search tool, Snap Map is reasonably easy to review.
However, check the time the user posted the Snapchat story. They may no longer be in the same place if a lot of time has passed since the History was published.
Also, keep in mind that being active on Snap Map means anyone can see your current location. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can always turn on Ghost Mode. That is how:
- Click the location icon at the bottom left to open the “Instant Map”.
- Tap the gear icon in the top right corner to access “Settings.”
- Enable the “Ghost Mode” slider under “My Location.”
- On the pop-up screen, choose the duration of “Ghost Mode”.
Now that you are familiar with this useful feature, let’s see how you can use it to find nearby Snapchat friends.
How to Find Nearby Snapchat Friends on an iPhone
Social media is always more fun with friends, especially when you can use it to meet new people. iPhone users should have no problem finding new and interesting people nearby using Snap Map.
- Tap the location icon in the lower left corner to access the “Instant Map”.
- If prompted, allow Snapchat to access your location.
- Select an “access point.”
- Swipe left or right until you find a Story that piques your interest.
- When you find the user you’d like to interact with, swipe up on the “Try Lens” option.
- Choose the “Creator” tab to visit the user’s profile.
- Press the “Subscribe” button to connect with that user.
If you’re having trouble finding hotspots near your immediate area, you can also broaden your search. Focusing on the city you live in will certainly present you with more options while keeping your potential friends relatively close to you.
To find new people from your city, simply tap the city name at the top of the screen while on the Snap Map. This will show new Snapchat Stories that you can explore.
You can also filter these stories based on location, especially if you live in a big city. By tapping the “Places” icon at the bottom center of the screen, you’ll see a list of popular locations in the city. Choose the most attractive ones and find new friends who have posted Stories from there.
Let’s say you’re out and about with your friends and you want to find interesting people nearby. If you come across a place with a lot of people you like, you can save it to your “Favorites” tab. Additionally, the “Visited” tab in “My Places” will show the places you’ve tagged in your Snaps.
How to find close Snapchat friends on an Android
Many potential new friends are just a few clicks away, thanks to Snapchat’s awesome Snap Map feature. You can use this feature to find new people who live nearby or even meet interesting foreign friends during your travels.
You can see what people around you are doing on Snapchat and connect with those you find interesting. To find nearby friends on your Android phone, do the following:
- Open the “Instant Map” by tapping the location icon at the bottom left.
- If prompted, allow Snapchat to access your location.
- Click on a “hotspot” near your Bitmoji.
- Swipe left or right to browse Snapchat Stories from that location.
- When you find a user you want to connect with, swipe up on their Story.
- Select the “Creator” tab to go to the user’s profile.
- Tap the “Subscribe” button to contact that user.
If you’re not staying in a particularly lively area, there may not be many access points around you. Plus, you might not like any of the Snapchat Stories you’ve seen. If that’s the case, you can go a little further than your immediate area.
At the top of the Snap Map screen, you’ll see the name of the city you currently live in or are visiting. Tap the city name to see what other people who live there are doing. While you’ve expanded your search, including new snaps, the location is still close enough for a possible meet-up with your new friends.
The “Places” tab also allows you to filter Stories based on location. Click this tab at the bottom center to see a list of popular locations across the city. Then click on a location you like and search for new friends who have posted snaps there.
In addition to the “Popular” tab, you can also access the “Favorites” and “Visited” tabs. The first contains places you’ve saved as favorites, while the second lists all the places you’ve tagged in your Snapchat Stories. If you’ve already met new and wonderful people in those places, you can revisit them from time to time and hopefully continue to expand your friend list.
Get out of the same old people
Social media apps are a great way to meet new people. Snapchat, in particular, is quite proactive in keeping its users entertained with various features. As a result, its Snap Map feature is unlike anything you see on other mainstream social media platforms. This feature allows users to find awesome new friends nearby and is reasonably easy to use, as our guide explains.
