Snapchat like most other social communication apps use your mobile phone number for finding new friends, but is not a necessity. In fact, it is not advisable to associate your number with your Snapchat account in the first place. With the already existing privacy issues and controversies surrounding Snapchat, giving out your phone number may land you in a spot you don't want to find yourself in, let alone sending out your more-than-average pics.
There is no need to associate your phone number with your Snapchat account as you can always find friends by accessing your existing contacts list on your phone using the Find Friends icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, or alternatively by typing out their name or username on the pop-up screen of the My Friends menu by scrolling up. And your friends can always find you by this existing methods without having to enter your phone number.
But for some reason you may not otherwise have fully thought of, you might have entered and verified your primary phone number to your Snapchat account. The potential risks to associating your number with your account is minimal by all accounts as only your name is displayed and since the latest updates, it is now possible to change your display name. Even so, it's good practice to not associate your phone number with your account, and this follows that deleting the number is certainly the best possible choice.
However, it is impossible to remove your phone number from your existing Snapchat account. This is just one of the many issues Snapchat currently faces that urgently need fixing in their upcoming updates. Either way, there is always a way to work around any issue, including removing your phone number from Snapchat.
It may not be the most elegant solution, but you can do this by deleting your account and creating a new one. Before you begin with the hate, let me explain. Unlike other instant messaging apps like Whatsapp, Snapchat does not store any of the photos, videos or drawings sent to you. This means that the app only serves as a platform to pass the snaps around without keeping any record. Deleting your existing account and creating a new one doesn't make much of a difference after you have added the same friends to your new account. The old account and the new account are practically the same except the new one doesn't have the friends in your previous account. But adding friends is no hard work anyway.
So here's how you can delete your Snapchat account and subsequently remove your phone number:
Now all you have to do is create a new account. Open up your Snapchat app on your phone and enter your email address, password and username. But make sure you enter the desired username as you can not change this later. You can however change your display name if you're using an up-to-date version of the app.
Next, you add friends by accessing your contacts list on your phone and/or by connecting to Facebook. This time however, do not enter your phone number. There is no need for that, and it's why you deleted the previous account in the first place.
Now once the friends list is updated, compare your new account to your previous account. You'll notice that there's no difference really except the scores are all reset to zero. But that doesn't make you rich nor popular, so it's not really an issue.
Snapchat still has a lot of updates to do if they're to keep up with the ever growing user-base, including features like the ability to remove phone number from your account, disable best friends list, enable notifications for iPhone and iPad users, etc. For best possible experience, keep your version of Snapchat updated to get the latest features and fixes.
There is no need to associate your phone number with your Snapchat account as you can always find friends by accessing your existing contacts list on your phone using the Find Friends icon in the bottom right corner of your screen, or alternatively by typing out their name or username on the pop-up screen of the My Friends menu by scrolling up. And your friends can always find you by this existing methods without having to enter your phone number.
But for some reason you may not otherwise have fully thought of, you might have entered and verified your primary phone number to your Snapchat account. The potential risks to associating your number with your account is minimal by all accounts as only your name is displayed and since the latest updates, it is now possible to change your display name. Even so, it's good practice to not associate your phone number with your account, and this follows that deleting the number is certainly the best possible choice.
However, it is impossible to remove your phone number from your existing Snapchat account. This is just one of the many issues Snapchat currently faces that urgently need fixing in their upcoming updates. Either way, there is always a way to work around any issue, including removing your phone number from Snapchat.
It may not be the most elegant solution, but you can do this by deleting your account and creating a new one. Before you begin with the hate, let me explain. Unlike other instant messaging apps like Whatsapp, Snapchat does not store any of the photos, videos or drawings sent to you. This means that the app only serves as a platform to pass the snaps around without keeping any record. Deleting your existing account and creating a new one doesn't make much of a difference after you have added the same friends to your new account. The old account and the new account are practically the same except the new one doesn't have the friends in your previous account. But adding friends is no hard work anyway.
So here's how you can delete your Snapchat account and subsequently remove your phone number:
- Go to Snapchat account deletion page: http://www.snapchat.com/a/delete_account. You'll have to access this page from your browser.
- Enter your credentials and click Continue.
- Click Delete and that's it. Your account, and subsequently your number, is permanently deleted.
Now all you have to do is create a new account. Open up your Snapchat app on your phone and enter your email address, password and username. But make sure you enter the desired username as you can not change this later. You can however change your display name if you're using an up-to-date version of the app.
Next, you add friends by accessing your contacts list on your phone and/or by connecting to Facebook. This time however, do not enter your phone number. There is no need for that, and it's why you deleted the previous account in the first place.
Now once the friends list is updated, compare your new account to your previous account. You'll notice that there's no difference really except the scores are all reset to zero. But that doesn't make you rich nor popular, so it's not really an issue.
Snapchat still has a lot of updates to do if they're to keep up with the ever growing user-base, including features like the ability to remove phone number from your account, disable best friends list, enable notifications for iPhone and iPad users, etc. For best possible experience, keep your version of Snapchat updated to get the latest features and fixes.
