An icon that some users might see when accessing Snapchat is a padlock that appears next to a Story. During the pandemic, people have started exploring different social media platforms to stay in touch with friends. In the process, users are looking at features more closely and are, at times, encountering new and unknown icons and this can be especially frequent when it comes to Snapchat, due to its emphasis on icons.
Snapchat Stories have been central to the app’s success, helping its parent company, Snap Inc., to boost its user base and encourage users to post more frequently, as well as more candidly about their lives. In 2016, Instagram copied the feature and to big success. Last year, Snapchat found competition in the form of TikTok, a short video sharing platform that has proved particularly appealing to Millennials, but with President Donald Trump taking a hard line with the Chinese app, some users might have started focusing yet again on Snapchat, as well as video-sharing platforms like Triller.
The padlock icon signifies that a Snapchat Story is private and that it is available to a particular person or a small group of friends. A Private Story differs from Our Story, which is a collection of Snaps submitted by different Snapchatters and visible in the Stories Snap Map. Adding to the list is My Story, which Snapchatters are likely to be familiar with as a fun way of telling how their day has unfolded. Besides being for select viewers, a Private Story also helps to add a layer or privacy to the content. It’s particularly helpful when a certain Story is meant to be shared with friends rather than, say, colleagues who might also be on the same friends list.
How To Create A Private Story
To create a Private Story, the Snapchatter will need to visit his or her profile and then find the option “+ Private Story.” A list of friends will be displayed with the user expected to choose the friends to share a Private Story with before selecting “Create Story.” After adding at least one name to the Story, it will be visible on the profile page and the user will have the option to keep adding moments to the Private Story.
Essentially, friends who have been made privy to the Story will see a padlock icon and will be the only ones who can view it. In contrast, those who haven’t made it to a Snapchatter’s Private Story list won’t know that the user has created a Private Story. A Snapchatter is also allowed to create multiple Private Story streams for different sets of friends. The main restriction is that a Snapchatter can only create up to ten Private Stories at once.
Source: Snapchat