Unlike a lot of social media platforms that are mostly public, Snapchat is one of those that gives users the control over who sees their Snaps as most of its features are set to private by default. Several of the features on the app can only be accessed by those that you have allowed into your Snapchat world. As part of their ongoing campaign to integrate online safety and privacy education, they are now introducing a new feature called Friend Check Up which basically reminds you to check your friends list and make sure you want them to stay there.
When you allow someone to friend you on Snapchat, you’re giving them access not just to your posts but possibly even things like your location. So Snapchat wants to make sure that you are protected and that all the ones you’ve added are really the ones you want to be sharing part of your digital and actual life with. When this feature does roll out, you’ll get it as a notification in your profile saying “Snapchat is for real friends”.
It will be your reminder to look at your friends list and see if you may have missed out on a contact or two that should not be there. You can remove that person by tapping and long-pressing on their name until you see the Block / Remove friend menu. This way that ex-partner or “friend” that you don’t remember where you met them from can easily be removed and will be unable to see all your Snaps after that.
Obviously, you don’t need to wait for the Friend Check Up feature to roll out before you start reviewing your friends list. But this will be useful for those times when you forget that you have the power to remove people from your life, at least on Snapchat. This is part of the platform’s push to make it a safer and friendlier place for all users. They’ve been tying up with several organizations like Trevor Project for LGBTQ+ youths, MindUP for parents who need help in understanding their teens, and Crisis Text Project for those looking for help with mental health issues.
Snapchat says the Friend Check Up feature will be rolling out to Android users in the coming weeks. This will be useful for those who need reminders to be safer on a platform that can make you share personal things.