How to Make a Group on Snapchat: Everything You Need to Know

Snapchat groups let you message, send Snaps, and share Stories with multiple people at once — all inside a single conversation thread. Whether you're coordinating plans with friends, keeping a family chat going, or organizing a team, knowing how to set one up (and what to expect from it) makes the whole experience a lot smoother.

What Is a Snapchat Group?

A Snapchat Group is a shared chat space where up to 200 members can send messages, photos, videos, audio, and Snaps simultaneously. Unlike a one-on-one Snap, messages in a group are visible to everyone in that conversation.

A few things worth knowing upfront:

• Group chats have their own name that any member can change
• Any member can add new people to the group (not just the creator)
• Messages follow Snapchat's standard deletion timers — either after viewing or after 24 hours, depending on your settings
• Groups support audio and video calls with multiple participants

This is different from a Snapchat Story, which is a broadcast format. A group chat is interactive — everyone can reply and contribute.

How to Create a Group on Snapchat 📱

The process is nearly identical on iOS and Android, though the exact button placement can shift slightly depending on your app version.

Method 1: From the Chat Screen

1. Open Snapchat and swipe right to reach the Chat screen
2. Tap the compose/new chat icon in the top-right corner (it looks like a pencil or chat bubble)
3. Search for friends by name or username and select multiple contacts
4. Once you've selected everyone, tap Chat at the bottom
5. A group conversation will open automatically

Method 2: From an Existing Chat

1. Open any existing one-on-one chat
2. Tap the person's name or Bitmoji at the top to open their profile
3. Look for an option to Create Group or Add to Chat
4. Select additional friends to include
5. Confirm to create the group

Method 3: From the Friends Screen

1. Press and hold on a friend's name on the Friends or Chat screen
2. Select More or the three-dot menu
3. Choose Create Group if that option appears in your version

Once the group is created, you'll be prompted to name it. You can skip this and name it later — just tap the group name at the top of the chat.

Managing Your Snapchat Group

Changing the Group Name

Tap the group name at the top of the chat screen. Any member can do this, so group names in active chats tend to evolve on their own.

Adding Members

Tap the group name or the settings/info icon at the top of the chat. From there, select Add Members and search for the contacts you want to include. The group can hold up to 200 people total.

Removing Members

Only the person who created the group has the ability to remove members. To do this:

1. Open the group chat
2. Tap the group name at the top
3. Scroll to find the member
4. Press and hold their name, then select Remove

Leaving a Group

Any member can leave at any time. Go to group settings by tapping the group name, scroll down, and tap Leave Group. Once you leave, you won't see new messages unless someone adds you back.

Group Snaps vs. Group Messages — What's the Difference?

This trips up a lot of users. Here's how it breaks down:

A Group Snap (sent via the camera button within a group chat) behaves more like a traditional Snap — it's meant to be viewed once or within a limited window. A standard chat message or media sent through the text field follows the chat deletion rules you've set.

Variables That Affect Your Group Experience 🔧

Not everyone's group chat experience looks the same. Several factors change how groups behave in practice:

App version: Snapchat updates frequently. The layout of group creation, the location of the add-member button, and even the maximum member count have changed across versions. If your interface looks different from the steps above, check whether your app is up to date.

Notification settings: By default, group chats can generate a lot of notifications. Each member controls their own notification preferences — you can mute a group without leaving it. Others in the same group may have their notifications set differently.

Message deletion preferences: The group creator's default settings may not match everyone else's expectations. Snapchat allows messages to be saved in chat by pressing and holding them, which overrides automatic deletion — but any member can do this, and it applies to specific messages, not the whole conversation.

Who's in the group: Groups with members who have strict privacy settings, or who aren't mutual friends with everyone, may see some friction with add requests or profile visibility.

Platform differences: The iOS and Android versions of Snapchat are maintained separately and occasionally roll out features at different times. A feature visible on one platform may appear slightly later on the other.

What Happens to Group Chats Over Time

Snapchat groups don't expire — they persist as long as at least one member remains. However, the conversation history is subject to Snapchat's deletion behavior. Unless messages are manually saved, older content disappears. This is a meaningful difference from platforms like iMessage or WhatsApp, where chat history typically persists indefinitely.

For groups where keeping a record matters — shared plans, important information, files — that ephemeral default is worth factoring in before deciding whether Snapchat groups are the right fit for a particular use case.

Whether a Snapchat group works well for you depends on who you're communicating with, how your contacts use the app, and what you actually need from a group chat — all of which vary a lot from one person's situation to the next.