How to Replay on Snapchat

Don't miss out on snaps from your friends again

Replay Video

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by Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau is a digital marketer, web content writer and copywriter. She has covered web trends for Lifewire and previously About.com, since 2011.
Updated December 19, 2018

It's a lot of fun to send and receive both photo and video messages from friends on Snapchat. But it's not so fun if you happen to miss the photo or video without getting a good enough look at it.

If you want to see a snap again, you can use Snapchat's replay feature before it disappears forever. Follow the steps below to learn how to replay photo and video snaps on the Snapchat app for both iOS and Android devices.

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After Viewing the Snap, Make Sure to Stay on the Friends Screen

So you just viewed a photo or video snap from a friend and it either timed out or you exited the snap too early and you're back on the Friends screen where you can see your conversations.

Whatever you do, don't navigate away from this screen if you want to replay a snap! If you go to another screen within the app or close Snapchat altogether, you won't be able to replay the snap.

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Press and Hold Your Finger Down on Your Friend's Name to Reload Their Snap

After viewing your friend's snap that you'd like to replay, you should see two pieces of text flashing back and forth directly underneath their name. One will say, "Tap to chat" before switching to "Press and hold to replay," and then back again.

All you have to do is press your finger down on your friend's name and hold it there until their snap reloads, which should only take a second or so. When it's finished loading, you'll see a new pink square if it's a photo snap or a new purple square if it's a video snap appearing to the right of their name.

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Tap Your Friend's Name to Replay the Reloaded Snap

Once your friend's snap has been fully reloaded, you'll be able to replay just by viewing it the way you'd view a regular snap. To do that, simply just tap your friend's name to open it.

Make sure you replay the snap right away rather than navigating to another tab or closing the app. Even if a snap has been reloaded but not yet replayed, it will disappear if you don't stay on the Friends tab.

Once you've replayed a snap, you won't be able to replay it again. Each snap can only be replayed once before it's gone forever, so make your replay count!

If you decide to replay a friend's snap, your friend will receive a notification telling them that you replayed their snap. This goes for both photo and video snaps.

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Tell Your Friends to Set Their Snaps to No Limit or Loop

Want to stop missing out on your friends' snaps and having to replay them every single time? You can politely ask them to do one thing to help you out.

Snapchat previously only allowed photo snaps to be viewed for a maximum of 10 seconds and video snaps to be watched in full just once before the expired. But now users have the option to put no time limit on their photos and can set their videos to loop when viewed.

This means that when you open a photo snap with no limit or a video snap that loops, you can view it for as long as you want until you tap the screen to exit it. (And yes, you still have the option to replay it if you need to.)

Tell your friends (perhaps in a chat) to tap the timer button that appears at the bottom of the vertical menu that appears on the right hand of the screen after taking a photo snap or recording a video snap.

If it's a photo snap, the button should look like a stopwatch with an infinity sign. If it's a video snap, the button should look like a circular arrow with an infinity sign.

Photo snaps can then be adjusted to have no time limit whereas video snaps can be set to loop automatically. Your friends only have to set this up once so they become the default settings on all future photo and video snaps.