How to View Snapchat Stories Without Being Friends

Are you too shy to send someone a friend request on Snapchat but still want regular updates from them? Or do you want to discreetly follow someone on Snapchat without having to be friends with them?

In this guide, we’ll tell you whether or not it’s possible to view Stories from people without being friends with them on Snapchat.

What is Snapchat Discover?

Snapchat Discover is a page on Snapchat that acts like a news feed. This page lets you view Stories from influencers, brands, publishing partners, and other accounts on Snapchat. What’s great is that you can get updates from accounts you don’t follow or are friends with. Like other feeds, what you see on Snapchat Discover is recommended and curated content based on your browsing history.

You can also use Snapchat Discover to see what Snaps your friends are viewing.

Can You View Snapchat Stories Without Being Friends Using Snapchat Discover?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to view Snapchat Stories from people you aren’t friends with. Snapchat has been intentionally designed in this manner. What you can see on Snapchat Discover ranges from news reports to public content. As such, you can’t see Stories and Snaps from regular people.

On the flip side, you can hide your Snapchat Story from someone you are not friends with. So, you don’t have to unfriend them if you don’t want them to view some of your Snaps.

3 Tricks to View Someone’s Snapchat Story You Aren’t Friends With

You can’t view Snapchat Stories without being someone’s friend, but there are three workarounds to this problem in case you’re desperate to do it.

1. Create a Secondary Account

The easiest way would be to create a secondary Snapchat account and add the person as a friend whose Snap you want to view. Of course, this will only work if the person accepts your friend request. You can always delete the secondary Snapchat account once its purpose is fulfilled. 

Do make sure that the other person has not changed their Snapchat username, as you might not be able to find them from the throwaway account you just created.

2. View the Story From Your Friend’s Account

If you know a friend connected to the person you want to check on Snapchat, ask them to let you view the Story from their account. This is more effective than the first hack because you don’t have to wait for another person to accept your friend request. Unfortunately, you can’t view the Story even if they send it to your account. You’ll have to borrow their phone to check the story out.

3. Use a Third-Party App

Though effective, we don’t recommend this third hack as it goes against Snapchat’s terms and conditions. However, some third-party apps can help you see the Snaps and Stories of others without actually being friends with them.

Two third-party apps that can do this are Snapchat++ and Casper. However, we strongly recommend against using such apps, as they can lead to your Snapchat account being banned.

How to Access Snapchat Discover

Although Snapchat Discover is available to everyone, you might not see it immediately as it’s buried under a few menus. The good news is that it’s easy to access as long as you know where to look.

1. Open Snapchat.
2. From the camera screen, swipe left to open Discover.
   
3. Scroll and tap any Snapchat Story to view it.
   
4. If you tap the ellipsis icon on the Stories, you can send the Snap to your friends or even subscribe to the account that posted the story.
   

Snapchat’s Privacy Policy Is Strict

Unlike other social media platforms, Snapchat is strict regarding its privacy policies. This is also why you cannot turn off the camera shutter sound on Snapchat. 

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