How to Snapchat With Music Playing From Your Phone

Make your snaps more entertaining by easily adding music

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.
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Updated on December 31, 2020
Reviewed by
Jon Fisher
Jon Fisher headshot
Reviewed by Jon Fisher
  • Wichita Technical Institute
Jonathan Fisher is a CompTIA certified technologist with more than 6 years' experience writing for publications like TechNorms and Help Desk Geek.
lifewire's editorial guidelines

What to Know

  • Play a track from a music app, launch Snapchat, and press and hold Record.
  • Record your video, then swipe down to the notification panel to pause the music.
  • Watch and listen to your video preview, and post it if you're happy with it.

This article explains how to add music to your Snapchat videos and stories. Instructions apply to the most recent version of Snapchat for iOS and Android.

How to Send Snapchats With Music

The addition of a music feature in Snapchat is something that brings it more up to speed with other competing social video apps, particularly Instagram. Prior to this update, if you wanted music to play in your Snapchat videos, you needed another device or computer to play it. Here's how it works.

  1. Open up your favorite music app and play any track you want. Whether it's iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud or any other app, as long as it plays music on your phone, you can use it with Snapchat.

    Keep in mind that Snapchat records the music at a pretty high volume, so consider turning it down in your music app if you want your own voice or other background sounds in your video to be heard through the music.

  2. Launch Snapchat (with the music still playing), navigate to the camera tab, and hold the big record button down to record your video message. It will record all the music your device is playing at the same time. 

  3. Before sending or posting your video, swipe down from the top of the screen and use the notification panel to pause the music. Then go back to Snapchat to watch/listen to your video preview.

  4. If you're happy with your video preview and the music playing along with it, go ahead and post it.

    Check out some of the fun lenses with built-in music tracks. Snapchat has been including more lenses like this, some of which feature new singles from popular artists, which automatically start playing music as soon as you activate the lens. New ones are added every day, so keep checking.

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