Snap chat - how to respond to chats?

[Jellycat77]

Hi,

I recently caved in and allowed my 15 year old daughter to get snapchat because she's just moved schools and wants to be able to make new friends. However, she doesn't really know 'the cool' way to reply - with a photo, a message, an emoji - or just ignore it? Also, someone she knows but had friendship issues with in the past has sent her a snap, so she's feeling a bit daunted by it.

She hasn't opened any of the snaps yet and she tells me that she's supposed to reply as soon as she opens them....I'm regretting allowing her to have the app and wondering where to go from here! Should she open the messages and reply? What's the risks? Could the 'friend' she's have issues share her reply and be mean about it? Is it worst 'etiquette' to ignore the snap?

It probably all sounds very trivial, but this stuff matters when you're new to a school and wanting to make friends, so I hope that someone can give a few words of wisdom. Thanks

I think when you open a snap, most of the time it is streaks. If it is a picture with an "S" on it, it is people trying to get their Snap Score up. So she would just respond with the same thing as a snap. I think if she wants to get her snap score up, she can do the same thing and send to all.

Otherwise, it could be people saying hi. If it's a chat, respond as a chat. If it's a snap, respond as a snap. Although if she wants, she can just text back for the snap as well. If she is careful on the app, hopefully nothing nasty will be spread. And snap does have a function that if you screenshot it, the other person will know. Not completely fool proof but it is something.

Depending on how bad the friendship issues were in the past, she can ignore it. Worst case scenario, she can say she didn't see it. It could potentially be someone trying to be nice again I suppose. But it's really her choice.

This is all from my 15 year old daughter who has Snap but thinks it's a bit silly and barely uses it and messages her friends on other social apps. Her twin sister uses it a lot more but she also agrees that it's honestly a bit useless and only uses it now to chat with her friends or send video vlogs.

My DS and his mates snap each other every day and it's usually a picture of their face doing a peace sign or something. Often though it's a picture of their feet or the ceiling of their bedroom or anything. Preserving snap streaks is important to them for some reason! She should open the snaps and respond with something similar to what they have sent her.

Ds says it depends who they are and what they sent you. If you don’t know them well just send a random pic back eg of your ceiling or floor as pp said but if a friend you know well then send a funny pic of your face. The ceiling seems to be a bit of a common thing to preserve your “streak”. Ds says he sends a photo of his ceiling to all the people he has a streak with to save time but if you’re just sending to a friend it might be a pic of your face. He said if they send a photo of their face then respond with the same and if they send a ceiling photo send back a ceiling photo. God, ive learnt so much tonight 🤪🤣.

Thank you everyone - so useful. I really appreciate that the time that you've all taken to share your experiences. I'm banning any more use of it until the weekend now so we can play around with it then!