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This is a short warning every Snapchat user should read.

To make a long story short – I was locked out of my Snapchat account for several hours today due to using 3rd party apps.

Why use 3rd party apps in the first place?

I’ve been using Snapchat as part of my marketing strategy for almost a year now. I love the platform, and it changed the way I document processes and share my story.

But there was one thing that bothered me – that fact that I can’t upload content from my camera roll to ‘My story.’

I wanted to be able to manipulate some of the content I was posting (creating better videos sometimes, creating images with a CTA on them, upload stuff from a screenshot, etc.) in order to get better engagement and stand out. So I had to find an alternative.

Also, Because it meant it’d be easier to create and share content for myself and my clients.

My solution was an app called: ‘Upload N’ Roll”. It worked great, and I even purchased to pro version.

The warning comes here

Snapchat has been shaking things up lately.

Changing the company’s name from Snpachat to Snap Inc, announcing their Hipsterish new ‘Spectacles‘ (I think they’re cool, some will disagree) and more.

As part of this process – they are also doubling down on detecting and locking user accounts that are using 3rd party apps with the app.

The official reason is that they suspect those 3rd party apps leak your data.

This morning, I woke up and found that my account was locked. Meaning – I can’t use my profile.

I’m pretty active on Snapchat, and I get a few tens of new followers daily – so I was freaking out.

The good news – Is that after going through a short process and a few hours later – I got my account back.

This is how I got it back.

It happened to me too! What did you do to unlock it?

Snapchat is pretty straight forward about what you should do.

On their “your account is locked” screen announcement they refer you to this link.

All you have to do is follow the simple steps mentioned there:

  1. Uninstall the third-party app from your phone.
  2. Then go here
  3. Click unlock
Unlock Snapchat

Unlock Snapchat

Your account won’t immediately unlock – it will still take 2-3 hours, but it should solve the problem – So don’t panic.

Worst case scenario, you can always use Instagram stories, right? 😉

Anyway, Lessoned learned is – Don’t use 3rd party apps with your Snapchat!

Were you locked out of your Snapchat account? Tell me in the comments!

Follow me on Snapchat

Follow me on Snapchat

P.S Feature image credit goes to imore.com 

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  1. Not single word of criticism toward Snap Inc who just locked you out of your account? Security and data leak are big concerns indeed but service cut is not the way to go. Also – how do you post from your gallery etc. now?

    • No. I’ll explain why.
      They give you some kind of heads up (that isn’t enough) but they do.
      But also – They gave me a quick solution that worked and guided me through it.

      Quora on the other hand – locked me out and aren’t even trying to help me get my account back. That pisses me off.