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Safety Guidelines

In addition to adhering to the Guidelines expressed here, we use our review process to ensure that your integration complies with our Community Guidelines by reviewing the safety and privacy approaches of each applicant. Negative user feedback may also be taken into account in our review.

The following guidelines apply to all developer integrations:

  • Intellectual Property: Violating the Intellectual Property rights of others is not allowed.
  • Brand Distinction: Your app's name, icon, user interface, and branding must not resemble or imitate Snapchat or any Snap-owned products. Avoid using names, logos, color schemes, font styles, or design features that might confuse users or suggest sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation with Snap Inc. Additionally, your app must not impersonate or appear to be an official Snap Inc. product, service, or entity through any design, functionality, or representation.
  • Anonymity: Integrations that facilitate communication between Snapchat users without registered and visible usernames and display names (“identities”) are not permitted. If the identity of a message sender is even temporarily obscured from the message recipient, then developers must ensure the integration includes a free and prominent identity reveal function. The free identity reveal option must be of equal size and visibility to any paid alternatives. Any delay for the free identity reveal option, such as advertisements, must be reasonable. Developers who build Snap Kit applications with Creative Kit are required to incorporate Identity Web View, which is described here.
  • Integrity: Never mislead about the functionalities of your integration, Snapchat or your Snap Kit integration. No deceptive content, functionality, design (e.g., dark patterns), or terms are permitted. Do not use your integration or Snap Kit integration to promote deceptive content or acts. The use of bots, fake users, or fake messages that could be perceived as deceptive or any form of spam or malware, including spam-like marketing tactics, are prohibited.
  • Minor Safety: Snapchat is for users 13+. Do not target minors under the age of 13. Content should not emphasize children. We are especially sensitive to content or experiences that may appear to, even inadvertently, put minors under 18 in romantic or sexual scenarios, even if fictional.
  • Sexual Content: We prohibit sexually suggestive or explicit content or experiences. This includes overtly sexually provocative content, pornography, sexual nudity, sex acts, and references to sexual services, meaning transactional romantic or sexual relationships.
  • Dating: Dating or friend-finding services are not allowed unless they are age-gated and restricted to users over 18. These integrations will be subject to providing additional information during the review process.
  • Harassment: We do not allow content or experiences that can make people feel bullied or harassed. Rating or ranking people based on certain attributes (such as personality, appearance, style, or intelligence) is not allowed.
  • Regulated Goods and Services: Do not promote regulated goods or services that could pose health or safety risks. This includes, but is not limited to: alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, weapons, explosives, or substance abuse, including the recreational use of medication. Content that encourages irresponsible behavior (such as binge drinking) is prohibited. We prohibit any gambling activities that involve real money or the purchase of assets (e.g. tokens) that can be exchanged for real money. Simulated gambling applications and games using fake currency are acceptable.
  • Safeguards: Your integration must have adequate safeguards in place to prevent harmful behavior as outlined in our Community Guidelines.
  • Fair Access & Pricing: Functionality should not be locked behind an in-integration purchase or paywall and there should be no deceptive pricing terms.
  • URLs: You may not use URLs, attachments, or other features to direct Snapchat users outside of the platform without obtaining explicit permission in your Snap Kit application process.

Integrations Containing Potential Safety Issues​

All integrations containing user generated content, social features or what we deem to be potential safety issues will receive a questionnaire requiring additional information. As part of our safety review we may require additional features such as the ability to report and enforce against content, user-facing contact information, and channels for law enforcement contacts. You must be able to swiftly and effectively handle any concerns raised about user safety on your integration.

URL Requests for Creative Kit​

In Creative Kit, URL stickers are currently restricted to an approved allowlist. To request access, please submit your app for review in the Dev Portal (with staging and production bundle IDs) and request this feature in the application,or contact us at snapkit@snapchat.com. Please note that access to this feature is subject to approval by our team.

Eligibility criteria include:

  • Complementary User Experience: Your app must enhance and be additive to the Snapchat experience, rather than duplicating existing features.
  • Music Streaming: If your share contains music, it may include a link back to the original streaming service.
  • Responses and Actions: One of the key motivations for sharing content with friends is to gather their feedback and responses. URL stickers can be used to solicit responses to polls, Q&As, RSVPs, donations, and shared purchases.
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