CLEVELAND, Ohio – Snapchat is booming in popularity and we’ve created a short video and tutorial to help you get signed up and following accounts, including cleveland.com’s Snapchat.
The photo- and video-sharing app has amassed a following of more than 150 million daily users. It’s even more popular than Twitter, according to Bloomberg.
But it’s not the easiest interface to learn. We’re here to help.
Check out the video above and the text below for a quick step-by-step guide on how to sign up and follow accounts using an iPhone. (iPhone users: Your tutorial is here.)
If you’re not already on Snapchat, you’ll want to give it a try when the Republican National Convention comes to town next week, and four of Snapchat’s biggest stars take over cleveland.com’s account.
Related: Once you get started, check out this guide to learn how to master all the Snapchat features.
So what is Snapchat?
It’s an app – available for iPhone and Android – that allows users to share photos and videos. Bad news for Windows Phone users, your phone is not compatible with Snapchat.
Essentially, Snapchat is a camera. You can either take a picture or you can shoot a 10-second video.
Then you can either make your snap public by sending it to “My Story” or private by sending it directly to your snap friends. The latter is the chat feature of the app and snaps sent to friends are only visible for a maximum of 10 seconds.
The Story snaps are viewable for 24 hours.
How to create an account
After you’ve downloaded the app from Google Play, you’ll need to sign up for an account to view any content on Snapchat.
Step 1: Put in your personal information – name and birthday.
Step 2: Create a username. Snapchat will generate one for you but you can customize it by tapping on the generated username.
Step 3: Create a password.
Step 4: Register your account with your phone number or your email.
Step 5: Prove you aren’t a robot.
Congratulations, you’ve officially create a Snapchat account.
How to follow cleveland.com
First, you’ll want to follow us. We do cool things on Snapchat.
You can add us by our username, clevelanddotcom To do this, tap the little ghost at the top. That brings you to your account page.
Once you’re in the account page, you’ll see the option to “Add Friends.” Tap that.
You’ll see “Add by Username.” That’s where you type in our username and add us as a friend.
You can also add people from your contacts – that’s the “Add from Address Book” option.
The third option is to “Add by Snapcode.” This is a cool feature. Use your phone to take a picture of this ghost with dots pictured at right.
Then tap the “Add by Snapcode” option and search your photos for the ghost picture. Tap it and Snapchat does all the work.
How to watch our content
Your homepage is the camera screen (the screen with the big circle). In the bottom right, you’ll see three dots. You can tap those dots or swipe right to get to the “Stories” page.
At the top of this page you’ll see all the discover channels (ESPN, CNN, Cosmo, etc.).
Under those channels you’ll see “Recent Updates,” and that’s where you can find cleveland.com’s stories.
You won’t get a notification when we post a snap, so you’ll have to check the app.
Easy enough, right?