Today I want to cover how to send a picture as a Snap on Snapchat from your camera roll or gallery. Wow I hear you say! The thing is, this isn’t as straightforward as it seems.
The Problem: Usually, Snapchat allows users to send a snap simply by using the Snapchat app on their phone rather than their camera. This is a “live” Snap.
If you want to post a camera roll photo or video as a snap, it will be sent as an in-chat photograph or video instead. The snap will be identified as originating from your camera gallery rather than live from Snapchat. The idea was to keep Snapchat live and real time – exciting.
Sometimes you might want to send a photo from your gallery as a real Snap and not look like it wasn’t taken using Snapchat. I’m going to show you how to send snaps from camera roll as a normal Snap. No one will know it isn’t a “real” Snap.
I’ll explain how everything works and a couple of ways to send a picture as a Snap – a real one!
Take a minute to check out some of my other Snapchat guides. I have one covering different ways to hack into someone’s Snapchat account – don’t worry it only covers legal hacks! Then if you want to see if you have been hacked this guide might help – can someone hack your snapchat by adding you.
How Can You Tell if a Snap is From a Camera Roll?
Snapchat can identify photos and videos that have been sent from your photo gallery and marks them so that others will know they are not live Snaps. If you look at the picture marker it will show in Blue if it is from the camera roll. A real Snap taken in Snapchat will be Red.
Can You Send Snaps From Your Camera Roll – Gallery?
Yes you can send pictures from your phone camera gallery as Snaps using the Camera Roll feature. But first, what is camera roll on Snapchat?
Camera Roll is a Snapchat feature that allows you to send pictures and videos directly from your phone camera gallery. In a way, you should think of Snapchat and your phone camera as two different cameras.
Camera Roll allows Snapchat to access your gallery. Using the Camera Roll you can simply select any photo or video in your gallery and send it using Snapchat.
But as I mentioned above, it will be marked as coming from your camera roll and not a live Snap.
Allow Snapchat Access to Your Gallery
You need to make sure that Snapchat has access to your storage – your photo gallery on your device.
When you join Snapchat, you have the option of allowing access to your camera gallery and various other features. Make sure the app has permission to access your gallery so you can upload images from your camera to Snapchat easily.
- Go to your “settings” and look for the “app management” option.
- Select the Snapchat app from your list of applications.
- Select “Manage Notifications” from the drop-down menu.
- Enable “storage option”
That should enable Snapchat to access your phone camera gallery. From there you can easily send photos and videos into Snapchat – as an in-chat message.
You can now go to your gallery and pick a photo you’d want to send to Snapchat. You’ll see the photo icon below the camera option. Once you have the picture you want just hit the “upload” button. There you have it. Your photo will be immediately sent to Snapchat as an in-chat message.
Next up I’ll tell you how to send pictures as real Snaps and not have them marked as from camera roll.
How to Send a Camera Roll Photo as a Normal Snap
OK, so we have looked at how send photos and videos from your gallery to Snapchat using the Camera Roll feature. If you want the Snap to appear as a normal Snap you have a couple few methods to choose from.
You can use a simple trick to save and edit the photo, you can use a filter to edit or you can use a third party app to get the job done. Both are easy enough but the app might be easier for some people.
Send a Real Snap by Save and Edit
The idea here is that you can select a photos from your gallery then edit it in Snapchat and save it. It will save to the Camera Roll and you can send it as a live Snap. Here is what to do:
- Open Snapchat and tap the Camera Roll icon at the bottom of your screen.
- Find the photo you want to send from your gallery.
- Tap and hold the photo then select “edit photo”.
- Edit the photo to remove the black borders on the image.
- After that select “share”.
That’s it your picture should be sent as a real Snap and show up with a red marker. Editing the photo will remove the black border that appears on pictures from your gallery. Because it is edited in Snapchat, it will be treated as a live Snap.
Send a Picture as a Snap Filter
This method is similar to the edit trick but even easier to manage. Here we will use a lense and select a filter to fake editing the photo, then send it. Here is how to do this:
- Open the Snapchat app.
- In the top search bar type “camera roll”.
- Several lenses will show in the results select any one.
- The lense should load and you then select hit any filter and then hit the main camera button.
- Your latest gallery pictures will show up across the bottom.
- Select the picture you want and send it.
Easy as that! Again you are tricking Snapchat by “editing” even when no real editing is done. The message will be sent as a real Snap. Did you know that I have a way to screenshot a Snap without them knowing – check my guide out here.
Using a Third Party App to Send a Fake Snap From Your Gallery
There are quite a few apps that can allow you to send a snap from camera roll that looks like a real live Snap. The most popular one at the moment is the LMK Let Me Know app. It is available for Android users in the Google Play Store and also for iPhone users at the Apple Store.
Another one that is only available on iOS is called Snap Share. These apps will allow you to send saved images or recent pictures from your camera roll.
Let’s have a quick look at the LMK app. It is a social app designed to let users ask questions and send out stickers – plus a load of other features that look pretty cool. But here, we are going to use it to send a picture from our camera roll.
Once you have downloaded and installed the LMK app you then sign in using Snapchat to connect your account.
Here is what to do next:
- Tap on the “+” icon and select “post”.
- Select the camera icon at the bottom left of the screen.
- Your gallery will open and select the picture you want to send.
- Next, tap on “post to Snapchat”.
- The Snapchat app will open and your picture will be in the background.
- You need to remove the sticker and attachment from LMK.
- Drag the sticker off the screen to delete it.
- Tap the paper clip icon and select “remove attachment”.
- Send your Snap.
That’s it. The sticker and attachment are added by the LMK app but are easily removed leaving you with a legit looking “fake” Snap from your phone gallery. Just be aware that you can only do one picture at a time and you need to remove the sticker and attachment each time.
I have a range of useful tips and tricks article about Snapchat you can check out: How to open a Snap without them knowing – how to see someone’s Snapchat History and then how to recover deleted Snapchat messages. Have a look around.
Conclusion
That just about covers how to send a picture as a Snap using real working methods. Although it sounds easy to send pictures from your gallery as Snaps if you want them to appear as genuine Snaps you need a few tricks.
Give it a go and see what method is easiest for you!
