Create on Snap

Learn how to level up your Stories and Spotlights!

Content Best Practices · Stories

There are a variety of factors that go into how your content performs and the amount of Snapchatters it reaches every day. To increase your engagement on your Story and help it reach more Snapchatters, we encourage you to incorporate these best practices.

Start strong

Open your story every day with a strong and compelling hook that gets your audience invested. Whether you’re going to a music festival or having a quiet day at home - set the stage for what your audience can expect.

Create a storyline

Have a strong storyline that incentivizes Snapchatters to stick around until the end. Lean into longer Stories that have a clear narrative with stakes, characters, and a beginning, middle and end.

Use captions

Appeal to a sound-off viewer by utilizing captions throughout your Story to provide important context. This can also help increase audience retention.

Integrate story replies

Engage with your audience by integrating Story Replies into your content. Quoting is a great way to make your Stories more interactive. Snapchatters love to see themselves featured in your posts!

Stay guideline compliant

Ensure you post a guideline compliant tile that provides context as to what to expect in your Story. It’s important that your tile is not misleading and accurately represents what Snapchatters can expect when they tap into your story.

Content Best Practices · Spotlight

Shine a light on your most entertaining Snaps by following some of our Spotlight tips and tricks!

View our full Spotlight guidelines and check out some more Spotlight tips, tricks, and creative ideas.

Post vertical video

Snaps should be vertical videos with sound.  Still-image photos, horizontal Snaps, blurry Snaps, and text-only Snaps won’t show up in Spotlight.

Be creative

Highlight your creativity and make every second count. Use Creative Tools like captions, Sounds, Lenses or GIFs to make your Snaps stand out.

Add a topic

Add a #topic on the Send To page so others can join in or explore more Snaps like yours.

Director Mode

Elevate your video Snaps using Director Mode. With Director Mode you can access a set of camera features that help you create more sophisticated video content, whether it’s for Spotlight, Stories, or even your Snaps! Learn how to access Director Mode and check out the video here.

UI image that shows Snap Sounds

Snap Sounds

Use Snap Sounds to express yourself, find inspiration, or discover new artists you’ve never heard before. 

Sounds (the 🎵 icon on Camera screen) enables Snapchatters to add licensed song clips, excerpts from TV and movies, and their own original audio to their Snaps and Stories. To get your songs in Snap Sounds, you can go through independent distributors like Distrokid or CD Baby, or work with your label to ensure they’re delivering your catalog to Snap.

Check out these instructions and follow our Sounds on Snapchat Guidelines when using licensed music and TV or movie content in your Snaps.

Save Stories and Spotlights to your Public Profile

You can showcase collections of your favorite Public Stories and Spotlights right on your Public Profile – permanently! Learn how to save stories. For Spotlight, ​​the 'Show Snap on Public Profile' option is toggled on by default, but you can choose to toggle it off.

Build & Engage your Audience