How do you change the sound on Snapchat?

Snapchat is a popular social media app that allows users to send photo and video messages that disappear after being viewed. Snapchat also includes many creative tools like filters, lenses and sounds that enhance the messaging experience.

Sounds have become an integral part of the Snapchat experience, with over 7.6 billion video views featuring sounds per month as of early 2023, according to Musically. Users can add music and sounds to their Snapchat messages to make them more engaging and entertaining. The app offers an extensive library of sounds, from popular songs to funny sound effects.

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to access, browse and manage sounds on Snapchat to take your Snaps to the next level.

Locating the Sounds Menu

The Sounds menu in Snapchat allows you to customize notification sounds and audio settings. To find it:

On iOS devices, open the Snapchat app and tap your profile icon in the top left corner. Then tap the gear icon to open Settings. Scroll down and tap ‘Sounds’

On Android devices, open the Snapchat app and tap your profile icon. Tap the gear icon for Settings, then scroll down and select ‘Sounds’.

The Sounds menu is located within the Settings section of the Snapchat app on both iOS and Android devices. From here, you can toggle sound on/off and customize notification sounds.

Sound On/Off Toggle

Snapchat allows you to easily toggle the sound on or off within the app. To find the sound on/off toggle:

Open the Snapchat app and tap your profile icon in the top left corner.

Go to Settings by tapping the gear icon in the top right.
Under the General section, toggle the Sound On/Off switch to the right to enable sound or left to mute sound.

Having the sound on means you’ll hear notification sounds and audio attached to Snaps you view. Toggling it off mutes these sounds so you can view Snaps silently. According to one source, turning off Snapchat’s notification sound can “enjoy some peace” if the sounds become disruptive or annoying.

The sound toggle makes it quick and easy to enable or disable sound effects within the Snapchat app as needed. Just remember to toggle it back on if you want to hear audio again.

Browsing Sound Options

Snapchat has thousands of sounds and music clips for you to choose from within the Sounds menu. Some popular ways to browse the available sounds include:

Scrolling through the different sound categories like Most Popular, For You, and Top Hits

Tapping the 🔍 icon to search for a specific song, artist, TV show or movie
Tapping the “+” icon to upload your own custom sounds from your camera roll

You can tap on any sound to preview the audio clip. This lets you listen to ensure it’s the right mood and length before adding it to your Snap. Many sounds are short segments from full songs or shows to comply with music licensing regulations. The music note icon on a sound also shows if it is popular with the Snapchat community.

Favorite Sounds

One of the easiest ways to access the sounds you use most often on Snapchat is by favoriting them. When you favorite a sound, it gets added to a separate Favorites section that you can easily access when adding sounds to your Snaps and Stories.

To favorite a sound on iOS or Android, browse the Sounds menu and tap the heart icon next to any sound. This instantly adds that sound to your Favorites. You can unfavorite sounds at any time by tapping the heart icon again.

According to Snapchat Creator Hub, favoriting sounds is useful for “build[ing] up a roster of go-to tracks for adding music to Snaps and Stories.” Having these favorite sounds readily available cuts down on browsing time when creating Snaps.

Search for Sounds

Searching for specific sounds in Snapchat is easier than ever. Simply tap the search icon in the Sounds menu and you’ll be taken to a search bar. Type in any keywords related to the sound you’re trying to find, such as the name of the song, artist, genre, mood, or instrument. For example, you could search for “relaxing piano” to find calm, piano-focused sounds.

As you type in the search bar, Snapchat will provide suggestions and auto-complete terms to help guide your search. Tap on any of the suggestions to quickly filter down to relevant sounds. You’ll see a list of sounds fitting your search query, which you can scroll through and preview before selecting. According to Snapchat Music 2023, some of the most popular sounds people search for include funny sounds, music from 2020, and top hits from TikTok.

If your search isn’t producing the sound you want, try rephrasing with additional keywords or details that uniquely identify it. Snapchat curates sounds from various sources so nearly any type of audio can be found if searched correctly. The search functionality makes locating personalized sounds quick and intuitive.

Uploading Custom Sounds

You can upload your own sounds to use in Snapchat stories and snaps, though there are some limits. According to Snapchat’s guidelines, custom sounds must be under 30 seconds (Snapchat Single Image or Video Specifications). They must also not violate copyright.

To upload a custom sound:

1. Open the Sounds menu in the Snapchat camera.

2. Tap the “Add” icon

3. Select a sound file from your camera roll or files.

The file will begin uploading. Once finished, it will be available in your Sounds menu to add to Stories or send to friends.

Based on community discussions (Adding custom music to Snapchat), you may have more success avoiding copyright issues by keeping uploads under a minute. However, 30 seconds is the official limit.

Saving Sounds

Snapchat allows you to save sounds from the app to your device’s storage. This lets you keep copies of your favorite Snapchat sounds for use even when you don’t have an internet connection.

To save a sound from Snapchat:

Open the Sounds menu and browse or search to find the sound you want to save.
Tap the sound to open its details page. At the bottom, tap “Save Sound.”
The sound will now be saved to your device’s internal storage in a Snapchat/Sounds folder.

You can access and manage all your locally saved Snapchat sounds through your device’s Files/File Manager app.

Note that saving sounds from Snapchat for personal use is allowed, but redistributing or reposting sounds without permission could violate copyright rules.

Sound Settings

Snapchat provides options to customize the sound effects volume and audio quality. You can adjust the volume of the various sound effects and notifications that play in Snapchat, allowing you to make them louder or softer as desired. There is also an “Enhanced Audio” setting on Android devices running Android 10 or later which improves the overall sound quality of audio messages and some videos.

To adjust the sound effects volume, open your Snapchat settings and go to the Sounds section. Here you will find sliders to control the volume of sound effects, video audio, voice audio (audio messages), and notifications. Drag the sliders to the desired volume level. Lowering the audio levels can be helpful in quiet spaces or at night.

On supported Android devices, you can also enable “Enhanced Audio” from the Sounds settings page. This setting takes advantage of advanced audio codecs on newer Android versions to provide higher quality audio reproduction. Enabling it, especially when using headphones, can make audio messages and some videos sound richer and more clear.

Between the volume controls and enhanced audio option, you have good flexibility to tweak Snapchat’s sounds to best suit your preferences and situation (source: https://www.wikihow.com/Change-Snapchat-Notification-Sound). Getting the audio levels and quality right improves the Snapchat experience.

Conclusion

In summary, Snapchat’s sounds feature allows you to easily add audio effects, music, and sound filters to your snaps and stories. You can turn sounds on or off globally, browse from a wide selection of sounds, mark your favorite sounds for quick access, search for specific sounds, upload your own custom sounds, and manage sound settings.

A few final tips for using Snapchat sounds effectively:

Choose sounds that enhance or complement your snaps rather than distracting from them

Add music during less active snap moments to maintain viewer interest
Utilize audio filters to alter your voice for a humorous effect
Create sound “playlists” in your favorites list for different situations

Customize audio based on your audience’s interests and sense of humor

With Snapchat’s versatile sounds options, you can take your snaps to the next level creatively and keep your viewers entertained. So tap that Sounds button and experiment with all the fun ways to add audio!