How to Turn Off Quick Add on Snapchat, Now Called Find Friends

If you can't find Quick Add in your settings, that's because Snapchat renamed it. The control still exists, under a new name and a new menu.

Updated 2026-10-03

What is Quick Add on Snapchat?

It was Snapchat's suggested-friends list, and it still is under the name Find Friends. It appears when you search, in the add-friends screen and in other places around the app, and each suggestion has an Add button that sends a friend request in one tap.

Snapchat describes Find Friends as a tool to help you find your real-life friends and family, or others you may know from your network. Adding someone through it works like any other friend request: they see the request and decide whether to add you back. Nobody becomes your friend just by appearing in your suggestions, and nobody becomes theirs by appearing in yours.

How do you turn off Quick Add, step by step?

In the current app the steps are:

1. Tap your Bitmoji or profile icon to open your Profile.

2. Tap the gear icon in the top corner to open Settings.

3. Scroll down to the App & Privacy section.

4. Tap My Privacy & Data.

5. Tap Who Can See Me In Find Friends and change the setting so you aren't shown to people who don't know you.

Then give it time. Snapchat says the change can take up to 72 hours to apply everywhere. If you're still showing up in someone's suggestions after three days, check the setting again, and update the app if the menu doesn't match these steps.

How does Snapchat choose Quick Add suggestions?

From signals about you and the people around you. As of October 2026, Snapchat's Support page on Find Friends lists the factors it uses:

• Age
• Location
• Existing friends, which is why mutual friends are the most common reason someone appears
• Existing followers
• Reputation and behaviour on Snapchat

Why do I show up in strangers' Quick Add?

Usually because of one of those factors rather than anything the stranger did. A friend of a friend is the classic case: if you share several mutual friends, Snapchat treats you as someone that person might know. Contacts are another. If your number is saved in someone's phone and they've synced their contacts to Snapchat, you can be suggested to them, even if you've never met in person or haven't spoken in years.

Location and age narrow the pool further, which is why suggestions often feel local. None of this means the other person searched for you or looked at your profile.

If strangers are adding you and you don't want that, the Find Friends setting is the first step. The second is Who Can Contact Me, in the same Settings section: by default only friends you've added can contact you directly, and keeping it that way means a request from a stranger can't turn into a message unless you add them back.

Does turning off Quick Add hide you from search?

No. Find Friends controls whether Snapchat suggests you to people. It doesn't remove your account from the app, and Snapchat doesn't describe it as hiding you from someone who types your username. A person who knows your username, or has your Snapcode, can still find you and send a request.

What stays private regardless: your friend list, which Snapchat says is visible only to you, and contact from non-friends, which by default can't reach you. To stop a specific person, block them; Snapchat's tools let you report, block or hide any Snapchatter. How to tell if someone blocked you on Snapchat covers what a block looks like from the other side.

Can minors appear in Quick Add?

Only in limited cases. Snapchat's Support pages say teens can appear in another user's Find Friends suggestions in limited instances, such as when they have numerous mutual friends or when one is already in the other's uploaded contact book. Snapchat also says it blocks teens from showing up in search results unless there are signs of an existing connection, like several mutual friends or being phone contacts.

There are more layers around friending. Snapchat says it delays and investigates friend requests to or from teens when the other account has no mutual friends and a history of accessing Snapchat from locations associated with scams, and teens see an in-app warning when they message someone outside their network. Public Profiles are off by default and only available from age 16; 16- and 17-year-olds get an opt-in version with extra protections.

A parent who wants to check these settings can do it with the teen, in the same My Privacy & Data menu.

Does Quick Add mean they searched you?

No. A suggestion is Snapchat's guess, built from mutual friends, contacts, location and the other factors above. It isn't a notification that someone looked you up, and Snapchat doesn't tell anyone who searched for them.

The same goes in reverse: appearing in someone's suggestions doesn't tell them anything about you beyond your display name and Bitmoji. They'd have to add you, and you'd have to accept, before anything else is shared.

For creators the picture is different. A Public Profile is meant to be found, its subscriber count can be shown on the profile, and growth comes from people who choose to subscribe rather than from friend suggestions. What are followers on Snapchat explains how that count works, and Snapchat followers adds to it with your public username and nothing else, never a password. It changes the number visitors read, not how Snapchat recommends you. Every Snapchat service is on the Snapchat page.

Questions people ask about Snapchat Quick Add