When an app becomes as popular as Snapchat has, there begins to be some expectation that it’ll grow to support more platforms than what it started out on. Sadly, there’s still no way to run Snapchat natively on Macs (or Windows PCs, for that matter), but Appamatix is here with a step-by-step guide that will show you how to get a version of Snapchat up and running on your Macbook, Macbook Pro, or iMac. It’s easy, it’s direct, and if you’re worried about the legality of this workaround, you don’t need to be!
To say that Snapchat’s popularity has exploded across its homes on Android devices and iPhones would be something of an understatement. It’s truly the only app of its kind, and if you haven’t signed up for it yet (or worse, haven’t even heard of it) then I applaud your ability to escape the zeitgeist that is the world of social media.
Snapchat, at its heart, is a messaging app, but it’s built upon media in a unique way that goes beyond taking and sharing pictures and videos. Whereas Instagram and Facebook feature social media feeds that are both persistent and somewhat static (unless someone chooses to delete a post), Snapchat media is fleeting. When you take a “Snap” and choose to send it to your contacts, then it’s already been given a short time to live; Snaps last between 3 to 10 seconds, only, and once they’ve been viewed by an individual, they’re gone for good. There are ways to save Snaps for short periods of time, but by and large, the media that makes up Snapchat is meant to be fast and quickly digestible; just like the moments in your life that they’re taken from! The app encourages creativity and allows you to use lenses, filters, stickers, and other fun, fast markup tools to add special effects to your Snaps before sending them.
Life's more fun when you live in the moment!:) Download Snapchat for iOS and Android, and start Snapping with friends today. Snapchat lets you easily talk with friends, view Live Stories from around the world, and explore news in Discover. Life's more fun when you live in the moment!
There are further nuances to explore in the app, however, but that’s the heart of the Snapchat experience, and it has been since the app’s inception. Recently, however, Snapchat has expanded its feature set to include those tools most often reserved for more straightforward messages services. It now allows you to make video and audio calls between your contacts, and the direct messaging system can almost serve as a replacement to your standard SMS text messaging if you want it to.
Snapchat in 2016, then, is something of a workhorse, and it has more form and function than many apps that reach this height of popularity. One might also think that this would have led to it growing onto other platforms, such as Windows or Mac OS X, but sadly, that hasn’t been the case. It’s understandable to those of us who’ve used Snapchat–it just wouldn’t work as well on laptop or desktop computer. It’s meant to be as mobile and active as you are, and for the most part, it succeeds at that when it’s on Android devices and iPhones.
That doesn’t mean there’s no way to accomplish that, though; we have a tried and true method of bringing Snapchat into the computer, and it’s called emulation.
Emulating Snapchat
We’ve written about emulators–specifically Android emulators–many times before on Appamatix. Still, in spite of how often we cover them, they’re by no means a mainstream type of software that everyone is already accustomed to. For many, emulators are a new thing entirely.
When you run an emulator, you’re using your computer’s resources to simulate a virtual environment that’s identical to a different operating system. In this case, we’ll be using your Mac’s resources to emulate the Android operating system, which is going to allow us to emulate the Android version of Snapchat. If it sounds complicated, don’t worry–it’s actually remarkably simple. All that we’re going to have to do is find the right emulator for you, which isn’t a difficult task since the majority of emulation software applications don’t differ too wildly from each other.
Many people wonder why we aren’t just emulating iOS since we’re going to be running it on a Mac. The answer lies in Apple’s proprietary software and hardware, which makes any Apple software extremely difficult to emulate. Since this type of software is all third-party developed, it’s understandable that they’d choose a more flexible operating system from which to run apps–like Android!
Finding the Right Emulator
The right emulator is the one that appeals the most to you, but while all of them differ slightly, they all perform the same basic function–to create a virtual Android OS from which you can run apps. Some of them have paid options, but most of them are entirely free.
- Bluestacksis the most popular emulator out there, and usually one of the first that I highly recommend for new users. It’s user-friendly, marketed well, and very simple to get started with. As you’ll see from the website, it’s primarily marketed towards Android gamers, but it can handle almost any Android app that you throw at it. The base version is free, but a meager subscription fee will remove the accompanying third-party advertising software.
- When not recommending the above choice, I tell people to go with Andyroid, which is my personal go-to emulator. I enjoy its minimalistic aesthetic and speedy updates. It also comes with a handy system tray manager (aptly titled “Handy Andy”) that will allow you to manage settings on the fly.
- If you’re not able to freely install software on your computer, then Manymo is probably the right choice for you. It’s a browser-based emulator that requires no software installation but does require you to have the .apk (application) file of any apps that you want to use. These are easily found through a quick Google search. The free version of Manymo gives you 10 limited duration uses per month, but a $9.99 subscription fee allows you a great deal more usage.
The list could go on and on, but we’ll leave it at that, for now. Any of these three emulators will work just fine for accessing Snapchat, so check them out! Bluestacks and Andyroid are very easy to download and install on your computer, while Manymo will remain rooted to your browser.
Snapchat on Your Mac
Once you have your emulator installed, there are only two other things you’re going to be required to have before we proceed.
Snapchat For Mac App Shortcut
- You need to have a Google account in order to sign into the Google Play store on your emulator. This can be had by setting up a free Gmail email address.
- Set up a Snapchat profile from your smartphone, where Snapchat is meant to run natively. If you already have a Snapchat account in the works, you’re going to have an easier time emulating it.
Once you have those two things, boot up your emulator! It probably looks very similar to an Android home screen, and for all intents and purposes, that’s exactly what we’re going to treat it like. Go ahead and click over to the Google Play store and search for “Snapchat.” It’ll be the first app to show up in your search query, and should be easy to download and install in your emulator.
After that, it’s a simple matter of signing into your Snapchat account and getting started with the app as you normally would–this time, from the comfort of your Mac! You’ll have access to all of Snapchat’s features since the emulators above all have microphone and camera support.
Of course, most of your Snapchat activity is probably going to take place on a smartphone. Since the app was designed to run natively on mobile devices, most of its features tend to cater to those types of features most readily available on Android devices and iPhones. Still, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of fun to be had when you’re running Snapchat on your Mac, especially since the apps developers have recently added so many handy messaging and calling features.
Keep in mind that you’re probably only going to remain signed in on one device at a time, which means that you’ll need to do a little bit of maneuvering each time you want to switch from one device to another. This is only a small obstacle, however, for the level of accessibility that you’ve given yourself with an emulator.
And who knows? Maybe we’ll see a Mac or PC version of Snapchat sometime in the near future when those less mobile platforms have a way to contribute to the fast, lively, expression-driven activity on Snapchat. Until then, we’ll have to rely on emulation in order to bridge these two types of devices. We can at least be thankful that it remains simple, and the above guide should have Snapchat up and running on your Macbook, Macbook Pro, or iMac in no time at all. If you still have any lingering questions, or simply want to tell us about your experience, don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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Unfortunately, the Snapchat app has been designed for mobile devices. It is not available on laptops or desktop computers. This is often a reason for frustration among many users. It is needless to say that a mobile device doesn’t stand up to a full-fledged PC when it comes to ease of use, computing power, and of course, speed.
So, if you are one of those many hundreds of thousands of people who want to know how to use Snapchat on PC and Mac, this detailed guide here is going to help you.
“Be Calm and Keep Reading!”
Basic Things You Should Know
Snapchat For Mac App Software
Before you learn how to use Snapchat on PC and Mac, you need to know a few basic things.
First, Snapchat has been specifically designed and developed for mobile devices. The coding used for the creation of this app is geared towards Android OS and iOS. These operating systems are different from the regular Windows Operating System or Macintosh Operating System.
The applications designed for mobile devices running either Android or iOS have different types of coding that do not work with the desktop operating systems. They are simply incompatible. This explains why you directly install your Snapchat on your PC or Mac.
No matter how hard you try, you cannot achieve direct installation unless Snapchat decides to come up with separate desktop clients. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Snapchat has any such intention.
Just because you cannot install Snapchat on our desktop computers, it doesn’t mean that you cannot use them on your desktop or laptop.
Note the difference between the two words – INSTALL and USE.
When you install, it simply means that the software is a native client of the operating system on which you are installing it.
When you use particular software, it may or may not be a native client of the operating system on which you use the software.
So, you can only USE Snapchat on your Windows PC or Mac desktop but you cannot install it.
But how?
There are two methods and both of them require installing another software known as Android Emulators. Using these emulators, you can easily get Snapchat on your Mac or Windows 10 PC.
Use Snapchat on Windows 10 PC and Mac with Bluestacks
In order to use Snapchat on PC and Mac, you can use Bluestacks. It is the most popular Android Emulator on the market. It is fast, well-designed, and gives a smooth experience.
You can download Bluestacks from this location.
Once the Bluestacks application is installed, follow the steps mentioned below to use Snapchat:
Step 1: Launch Bluestacks
Once you have installed the application, launch the app by finding it on the launcher (for Mac) or from the Start menu on your Windows desktop.
If Bluestacks already did not ask you to sign in during the installation process, it will do so now. You will be asked to sign in to your Android account using Gmail. If you are already an Android user, use your Gmail ID and password. If you don’t have a Gmail account, simply create an account and use the login credentials.
Step 2: Search Snapchat
Once Bluestacks launches, you will see a finder bar or finder icon on the Bluestacks window that opens. Click on the search bar or on the search icon and type in ‘Snapchat,’ and hit the enter button.
Step 3: Locate the Snapchat App
Once you conduct the search, Bluestacks will show the list of applications. Locate the Snapchat app icon, which is basically a yellow square box with a white ghost figure on it.
Step 4: Install Snapchat
Now click on the icon to install the application. The application will be installed inside the Bluestacks emulator. In other words, the app will be installed in the virtual Android environment inside Bluestacks. It will not be installed on your Windows PC or your Mac desktop.
Step 5: Launch Snapchat
Once you install Snapchat on Bluestacks, you can find the app icon in the Library tab. Click on the Snapchat icon to launch it inside Bluestacks! Now log into your Snapchat account and voila! Snapchat is at your fingertips. You can now ditch your phone and stick to your Windows PC or Mac desktop.
Use Snapchat on Windows 10 or Mac without Bluestacks
As we mentioned earlier, there is absolutely no way you can use Snapchat on your PC and Mac without an emulator. While Bluestacks is always the first choice, there are other great emulators too. Another great option is the Nox App Player or simply NoxPlayer.
Simply visit this link and download NoxPlayer for your desktop. Select the Mac version if you have Mac. Now install the application and follow the steps below:
Step 1: Launch NoxPlayer
Once you have successfully installed NoxPlayer, launch it from the Start menu (on Windows PC) or from the Launcher on your Mac desktop.
Step 2: Search Snapchat
Once NoxPlayer launches, search for Snapchat on the search bar you see on the top. Hitting the search button will open a new window inside the NoxPlayer listing all results related to Snapchat. Basically, it will show an Internet search inside the NoxPlayer. You can also see an URL on top which reads something like this:
https://www.bignox.com/search/result?q=snapchat
Basically, the application will search for Snapchat on the BigNox website but, instead of using a traditional browser, the NoxPlayer will use the integrated browser.
Step 3: Install Snapchat
Click on the first link and it will ask you to choose the option of opening the link with a browser or using Play Store. Use the Play Store and then install the app.
Step 4: Use Snapchat
Once you install Snapchat, click on the ‘Open’ button and the app will be up and running inside the NoxPlayer emulator.
Simply log in or sign up to use the messaging client! That’s all.
- Windows 10 Startup folder guide.
- Bluestacks Download
About Snapchat
Snapchat! This insanely popular instant messaging app can be found installed on almost every Android and iOS phone in this world. The popularity of this picture messaging app can be traced back to its feature of spontaneity and fleeting nature of the conversations.
![Snapchat for mac app installer Snapchat for mac app installer](/uploads/1/1/9/3/119365940/795433863.jpg)
Yes, the pictures and the messages shared through this messaging client disappear forever after a short period of time. It is this particular nature of the app that intrigued millions of users worldwide after its launch in 2010. Today, it is one of the most widely-used messaging clients in both Android and iPhone ecosystems.
While it only takes a few taps to install the app on either an Android-powered device or an iOS-powered device, users often ask a workaround to make this app work on Windows PC or Mac OS.
Conclusion
No one is stopping you from using Bluestacks or NoxPlayer. It is your choice! But you need to remember that the moment you use Snapchat on PC and Mac using any of these emulators, you immediately disturb the privacy policy of Snapchat.
The moment you install Snapchat on any Android emulator, the emulator gets access to you all your data from the Google Play Store. If you are a big advocate of privacy and you still use these emulators to use Snapchat on your desktop, do not cry foul when Bluestacks or NoxPlayer get their hands on your data. You will be knowingly granting them permission!
Contents of the Article
- Use Snapchat on Windows 10 or Mac without Bluestacks