How to Make Silly Snapchat Faces With Selfie Lenses

Here's how to have some serious fun with Snapchat

By
Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau
Freelance Contributor
  • University of Ontario
  • George Brown College
Elise Moreau is a writer that has covered social media, texting, messaging, and streaming for Lifewire. Her work has appeared on Techvibes, SlashGear, Lifehack and others.
lifewire's editorial guidelines
Updated on February 11, 2021

With Lens effects, you can apply funny Snapchat filters to your selfies. Here's how to send a Snapchat with face effects.

Instructions in this article apply to the Snapchat app for iOS and Android.

How to Send a Snapchat With Faces

Follow these steps to apply Lens effects to your face on Snapchat:

  1. Use one finger to long tap on your face. Maintain steadiness and don't move your head too much.

  2. A new selection of icons appears at the bottom of the screen to the left and right of the snap button. Scroll right to see lens effects.

    Scroll left to access Snappables. Snappables are games you can play with your friends that incorporate lenses.

  3. Tap any lens you want to try out on your face. Keep your device and your head as steady as possible.

    The more you move around, the more you'll confuse the app's face-detecting feature, causing your lenses to look warped and inaccurate.

  4. To take a photo, tap the lens icon. To take a video, tap and hold the lens icon. Some lenses give instructions on how to exaggerate the look. For example, text may appear on the screen telling you to raise your eyebrows or open your mouth.

  5. Tap the send button to send it to your friends, or post it to your Snapchat stories.

    Snapchat Lens and Send icons

What Are Snapchat Lenses?

The Snapchat Lens feature applies animated filter effects to your face when you hold up a front-facing camera to take a selfie. Using face-detecting technology, the app automatically finds your facial features, like your eyes and mouth, to apply the effects properly.

Filters can distort your face so that you have small eyes and a big mouth. Filters can give you a wig and makeup, like eyeshadow and lipstick, or make you look like a dog with a tongue that appears when you open your mouth.

When you browse through the available lenses, you should come across some that let you bring a friend in so you can both share the lens. These lenses detect two faces at once.

Snapchat now has lenses that work with your dog or cat. Look for the lenses that display a paw print icon.

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