Snapchat is one of the world’s most popular photo and social apps, sending millions of snapshots between users every day.
Normally, the Snapchat app allows the snaps or videos captured in real-time to be sent to the followers, although they are usually heavily filtered and edited through Snapchat’s unique photo editing interface.
These features have led to the massive popularity and specialty of Snapchat as a platform.
Snapchat has always made it possible for you to add previously recorded images to your story.
Previously, in doing so, the text from Camera Roll would appear above the story when it was posted – which made it clear that the image was not captured in real-time.
At some point, Snapchat added the Memories feature that lets you take a bunch of photos from your camera roll and post them to your Story without any notice that it wasn’t taken in real-time, other than a little white border around the edges.
However, shortly thereafter, Snapchat fixed this issue and added text to make it clear that stories posted from memories were not recorded in real-time.
There are a few ways with which you can send the snaps from Camera Roll as a normal snap.
Using Memories
- Tap the original picture in the albums and select Send to My Story.
- Open the story and click download. Immediately delete the saved image.
- Tap the Settings icon and scroll down to Memories.
- Tap on Memories and hit Import from Camera Roll. Find the picture you downloaded from My Story.
- Go back to the home screen and select the new picture.
- Tap the Send button, and you can send the new photo to both your camera roll and your friends. If so, tap Send to my story. The newly uploaded camera roll image does not have the memories header.
Using a Snapchat filter
The best way to send a photo or video from your camera as a live snapshot to one of your friends on Snapchat is by using a Snapchat filter.
Oddly enough, there are many filters in Snapchat that allow you to send a photo from your camera roll as if it had just been taken.
- You must make sure that you have the photo you want to send as a normal snapshot on your camera roll. This is because the filter will open the camera roll or gallery so you can choose the image you want to send as a normal snapshot.
- Go to Snapchat chat and select the smiley face icon next to the button to take a photo. This will allow you to open filters and find the camera roll filter that will allow you to send snapshots from your camera roll as if they were normal snapshots.
- Click the browse button in the lower right that has a search icon. From here you want to find your camera roll and this will display a bunch of filters that will allow you to upload a snapshot like a normal snapshot from your camera roll.
- Find the camera roll and select one of the filters. From here, your gallery will open and you will be asked to select a photo from your camera roll.
- Once you have selected a photo, it will appear as if you have just taken a live snapshot and from here you can edit it like any normal snapshot you take.
- Once you are done, you can choose who you want to send the plugin to.
- When the person receives the snap, it will appear that they just took the snap using Snapchat as usual.
The downside of using this method is that at the bottom right of the plugin the filter icon will be displayed and people who are very familiar with the plugin will know that you sent it using a live photo and it is not something you just took now using the snap app.
When they click on the filter icon at the bottom right of the plugin you just sent them, it will open the filter you just used and allow them to use it, and select a photo from your gallery.
Using a sticker
Another way to send an image from your camera roll as a normal snapshot is by applying stickers.
The downside to using the sticker method is that it blurs the image a bit, so it’s something you should be okay with.
However, it means that it actually looks like it took the plugin now and there is no filter icon in the bottom right of the plugin.
- Go to the Snapchat app and select the memories icon, then select the camera roll and select the image you want to send as a normal snapshot.
- At the bottom left, select the pencil tool so you can edit the image and make a sticker out of it.
- Select the scissor tool and draw around the edge of the image to create a sticker from it. Once you are done, the edit you just made should be a rectangle of the image. It will be automatically saved on your stickers.
- Exit the memories section and take a photo as you normally would.
- From here, you want to click on the stickers icon, which is the icon of a sheet of paper with a crease in the corner. Tap the scissor icon in the top row to pull out the stickers you have made earlier.
- Once the sticker is selected, drag it with two fingers and make sure it fits all corners of the screen.
- Send the plugin to your friends as you would a normal plugin.
