Just about every Snapchat user has likely had random people add them as a friend. They’ll be going about their day, using the app like normal, and then get a notification that someone has added them on the app — despite not knowing the new follower at all. These random followers can be pretty annoying, so let’s learn how to stop them once and for all.
The good news is that there are a few ways Snapchat users can prevent random people from following/adding them. Above all else, it’s strongly recommended to turn off the ‘Quick Add’ feature. When opening the search page in the Snapchat app, the Quick Add section shows a list of people Snapchat thinks that users should add. Quick Add recommendations are based on someone’s contacts and users that are mutual friends. It’s a good tool to discover friends that someone may not have added yet, but on the flip side, Quick Add also exposes people’s usernames to an unknown group of individuals.
Turn Off Quick Add In Snapchat
To turn off Quick Add, open the app and tap the profile icon at the top-left of the screen. Tap the settings button at the top right, scroll down, tap ‘See Me in Quick Add,’ and then tap the toggle on that page. After a Snapchat user has disabled this, their username will no longer appear in the Quick Add section on other people’s app. If anything will help minimize random friends/followers on Snapchat, this is it.
Disabling Quick Add is a great way to stop new users from finding a person’s Snapchat account, but it doesn’t do anything to block people that have already added themselves as a friend. As such, it’s recommended to go through the in-app friends list and make sure there aren’t any unwelcome users there. Open the Snapchat app, tap the profile icon at the top-left, scroll down, and tap ‘My Friends.’ If there’s someone in the My Friends list that shouldn’t be there, hold down on their name until a pop-up appears at the bottom of the screen. On that pop-up, tap ‘More,’ and then tap ‘Block.’ Not only will this remove the person from being a friend, but it will also prevent them from adding themselves as a friend in the future.
On the note of blocking communication with random users on Snapchat, it’s also recommended to update contact settings. Open the Snapchat app, tap the profile icon in the upper-left corner, tap the settings icon, scroll down, and then tap ‘Contact Me.’ If ‘Everyone’ is selected, tap ‘My Friends.’ This will make it so that only existing friends can send Snaps, direct messages, and in-app calls — thus preventing random people from communicating with a user in any way.
Stop People Adding You On Snapchat By Phone Number
Adding a phone number on Snapchat is recommended as a form of two-factor authentication, and serves as an additional method of account recovery. However, by default, Snapchat allows other people to find a user by entering their contact number, which can lead to a lot of random people added as friends. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to disable this. Open Settings on Snapchat, and tap ‘Mobile Number‘ under ‘My Account.’ Disable the toggle next to ‘Let others find me using my mobile number.’ Users also have the option to prevent people from adding them by their email address. To disable this, tap ‘Email‘ under ‘My Account‘ and turn off the toggle next to ‘Let others find me using my email address.’
Disabling both these features should significantly reduce the number of random people being added to a user’s Snapchat. Outside of those settings and features, it’s also recommended to practice basic common sense with how someone treats their Snapchat account. If someone doesn’t want random people adding them on Snapchat, they should keep their username private and not share it on other social networks. Snapchat usernames can only be changed once a year, so don’t go and blast it all over the internet and not expect random people to add it. That may go without saying for some users, but it’s honestly one of the best ways to ensure random friends are kept to a minimum on Snapchat.
What Happens If You Don’t Add Someone Back On Snapchat?
What happens when a random person adds a user on Snapchat, but they don’t add them back? The good news is that by default, Snapchat only lets friends see a user’s story, provided they haven’t changed this in settings. To make sure stories are private and visible only to friends, open Snapchat settings, and scroll down to ‘My Story‘ and make sure it’s set to ‘My Friends.’ This will ensure that random people don’t have access to private stories.
Users who see chats or Snaps from people they haven’t added back will notice a little grey ‘x’ next to their name. They can tap on this to report, block, or clear the conversation. Users can go one step further and clear random people they haven’t added back on Snapchat. To do this, tap the profile icon and then the ‘Add friends‘ button. Tap the ‘X’ next to the random person in the ‘Added me‘ section and tap ‘Ignore.’ While this will ensure the Snapchat user isn’t added as a friend, it won’t block them completely.
Source: Snapchat