Snapchat is a popular photo and video-sharing app also snapchat sends notifications to the users when you receive a new message or when someone tags. Users can create wonderful images, and short videos and share them with family or friends. While traditionally Snapchat is a person-to-person messaging application, you can also make group chats on Snapchat. Snapchat also frequently updates its filters to aid the creativity of its users. As Snapchat is primarily a smartphone camera-centric app, it must have access to the smartphone’s camera to capture photos and videos. We usually give access to Snapchat for the camera while we are setting up the app for the first time. But due to updates either notifications on the Snapchat app or the smartphone’s software, the app might sometimes lose its camera access. So, how to allow camera access on Snapchat?
If this is a question bothering you, then this guide is just for you. Here, we will see how to allow camera access on Snapchat on both iOS as well as Android smartphones.
After that, we will take a look at some troubleshooting methods if Snapchat isn’t able to access the camera on your smartphone.
A Brief Note on Snapchat
Snapchat is a smartphone-only app for sharing photos and videos. But just like any other social media, Snapchat also allows its users to block each other if they receive any notifications from unknowns. Users can capture photos or record videos using their Snapchat app and share them with a person (family or friend) or all their followers it has two profiles one is public which allows everyone to see their content and the other one is private profile only their followers are allowed to see their posts and stories.
For the Snapchat app to work properly, it needs access to your smartphone’s camera, microphone, storage, and other important functionalities.
Due to security concerns, app permissions have become very important. Many smartphone users are now carefully scrutinizing the list of permissions that an app or service needs to function as intended.
If you manually disabled app permissions, then the app might still work but with limited functionality. This is the case with Snapchat and camera access.
Whether you disable access to the camera for the Snapchat app manually or a software update (either for the smartphone or the app) made Snapchat unable to access the camera, it will not work properly and throw an error.
Several users are getting this error and cannot use the Snapchat app. So, the question is how to allow camera access on Snapchat.
If you disabled the camera access to Snapchat on your smartphone and forgot, then it is very easy to give back access again. We will see the procedure to enable camera access on Snapchat for both iOS as well as Android Phones.
How to Allow Camera Access on Snapchat?
In iOS
- Look for the settings app on your iPhone and open it.
- Scroll down until you see “Snapchat” from the list of apps.
- Tap on “Snapchat” to open its settings.
- Look for the “Camera” option and make sure that it is on (green). If it is off (gray), toggle the switch to make it green.
In Android
- Open your Android phone’s “Settings” app.
- Go to “Apps”, “Applications”, “Apps & Notifications”, or other similar section in settings that displays the list of all your apps.
- Look for Snapchat from the list and tap on it to open its settings.
- Open the “Permissions” option.
- Here, you can see all the permissions that the app has access to or disabled.
- Find “Camera” in the list of permissions and turn it on.
- Depending on the Android Phone manufacturer and the software, this will be as simple as toggling the permission on or off or selecting “Allow” or “Deny” options.
- If you are concerned about permission and security, some Android Phones give you an option to allow access to a particular function only when using the app.
Within Snapchat App
There is also a chance that you disabled the camera access to Snapchat in the app settings itself. So, you have to change this setting to allow Snapchat to access the smartphone’s camera.
- Open Snapchat on your smartphone (either iPhone or Android Phone).
- Tap on your Profile Picture and then click on the Settings option (cog wheel or gear icon).
- In the “Additional Services” section, tap on the “Manage” option.
- Next, you will see “Permissions”. Tap on this.
- Here is a list of all the permissions that the Snapchat app needs or uses.
- Tap on “Camera”. If it isn’t enabled, this option will take you to the App Permission settings on your phone. You can enable it there.
What to do if Snapchat Still isn’t Able to Access Camera?
The steps we mentioned above will work for most users (iOS as well as Android) and they should be able to start using Snapchat without the camera access error.
But if there are other issues, then you will still not be able to use the Snapchat app normally.
Camera Restrictions in iOS
If there are any restrictions in the iPhone’s settings for the camera, then Snapchat cannot access the camera and throw an error.
Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone and tap on the “Privacy” option. Next, tap on the “Camera” section. This will open the camera privacy settings for all the apps.
Look for Snapchat in the list and make sure that it is on (green).
App Limit in iOS
iPhone users have the ability to restrict the usage time of an app using the “App Limit” feature in the settings. If you set any limit for Snapchat, then consider deleting this limit so that Snapchat will work all the time.
Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone and then tap on Screen Time or General option.
Next, tap on “App Limits”. Look for “Snapchat” and open it. Disable the App Limit using the toggle switch or delete the limit using the “Delete Limit” option on the bottom.
Restart Snapchat App
If Snapchat is open, close it. Also, remove it from the recent apps. Now, restart Snapchat and see if it is working as expected or not.
Update Snapchat
An outdated app might cause problems even if we enabled all the necessary permissions. So, go to Play Store on Android Phones or App Store on iPhones and update Snapchat.
Clear Snapchat’s Cache
When we use any app, it stores some frequently used data in the form of a cache on the storage. Over time, this cache will take over your device’s storage and makes it slow and sluggish.
So, phone manufacturers recommend users to regularly clear cache and other unnecessary data to make the apps run smoothly and error-free.
We can clear Snapchat’s cache right from the app itself. This will only delete the temporary app data and settings and won’t affect your photos, videos, and other settings.
Open the Snapchat app on your device and tap on your Profile Icon to open the profile page. On the top right corner, you can see the gear icon. Click on it to open the settings.
Look for the “Clear Cache” option and tap on it. You can see different types of cache Snapchat stores on your device. We recommend you clear all cache. So, tap on the “Clear All” option.
You will get a pop-up message. Tap on the “Clear” option to clear all the cache. The Snapchat app automatically restarts once it clears the cache.
Restart Your Device
We use several apps on our smartphones and this means all the apps occupy some memory. If you don’t clear the memory, the phone will hang a lot and might even show errors if we open an app due to memory corruption.
A simple restart of the smartphone will close all the apps, clears the memory, and offers a fresh start when we open any app.
Uninstall and Reinstall Snapchat
If there is any problem with the Snapchat app, you can uninstall and reinstall it on your smartphone. This solution means you might lose some data. So, don’t forget to back up your memories before uninstalling.
Conclusion
Snapchat is primarily a camera-centric app for smartphones. You can create and share photos and videos with your family and friends. Once the receiver views that message, it will be deleted after a certain period.
Some users are getting an error saying that the Snapchat app needs camera access. Are you one of them? If you are not familiar with the procedure on how to allow camera access on Snapchat, then this guide covered the basics of it.
We saw simple steps on how to allow camera access on Snapchat on both iPhones and Android Phones. After that, we saw some other troubleshooting methods that can solve the camera access problem for the Snapchat app.
If you think we missed something (a procedure or solution), do let us know in the comments section so that it will help us as well as other readers.
