When a story is private, unapproved friends won’t see a story in their feed. The lock only appears on stories. Regular snaps are sent individually, so you’ll only see a normal snap if it was meant for you in the first place. The lock will be purple if you haven’t watched a private story yet, or gray if you’ve viewed it. It’s also gray in your profile if you want to make your own custom story. If you’re brand new to Snapchat, a story refers to snaps that you post for people to open at their leisure. Unlike normal snaps, which you send individually, a story won’t pop up in someone’s inbox.
The lock simply means that other people may not be able to view the story.
You can select who views your story from an alphabetized contact list. In contrast, when you send a normal snap, your friends list is sorted based on streaks (how often you send them snaps), which can be kind of clunky to sift through.
If you accept random friend requests, making a story private is a good idea if you’re revealing any personal info on the app. It’s better to be safe than sorry! You may also want to hide a story if you’re doing something in a snap that certain people may not approve of. If you’ve got a sibling who hates people who drink, you may want to block them from seeing footage of you at a party, for example.
You can also get to this screen by pressing your bitmoji or the story thumbnail when you open the app.
This is a key difference between posting a private story and sending individual snaps. When you send a normal snap, you select who to send it to after you shoot the video or take a photo.
