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Snapchat's next lockscreen integration could be with Samsung

You could soon be able to jump straight into the Snapchat camera on your Galaxy phone without unlocking it.

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Published onNovember 21, 2023

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

Code within the Snapchat app suggests Snapchat is working on letting Samsung phone users quickly launch the Snapchat camera from the lockscreen without needing to unlock the phone.
Samsung phones can already add a shortcut to any app on the lockscreen, but it requires a phone unlock.
Samsung is also rumored to add a lockscreen shortcut for Instagram on the Galaxy S24, and speculatively, the Snapchat lockscreen shortcut could also be announced then.

Snapchat is an instant messaging app that is quite popular with Gen Z, many of whom love the ethereal messaging functionality. This makes the app quite a draw for any phone maker targeting the Gen Z crowd. We’ve recently seen the likes of OnePlus integrating a Snapchat lockscreen shortcut with the Android 14 update on the OnePlus 11. Next, we could likely see Samsung do the same on its smartphones.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

Snapchat v12.62.0.36 Beta includes strings that clearly indicate that Samsung could soon let you add a direct shortcut to the Snapchat camera on the lockscreen.

Code

<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_continue">Add Shortcut</string>
<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_info">Quickly take a Snap by setting Snapchat camera as a Lock Screen Shortcut</string>
<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_not_now">Not Now</string>
<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_note">Note: Anyone who uses your phone may be able to access the Snapchat camera using this feature</string>
<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_set_left_shortcut">Set as Left Shortcut</string>
<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_set_right_shortcut">Set as Right Shortcut</string>
<string name="samsung_lockscreen_promo_title">Add Snapchat to Your Lock Screen</string>
<string name="settings_samsung_lockscreen_to_snap_description">"Quickly open the Snapchat camera by swiping from the icon. Anyone who uses your phone may be able to access the camera using this feature."</string>

As we can discern from the strings, Snapchat could soon let you jump straight into the Snapchat camera with lockscreen shortcuts on Samsung devices. Samsung devices can already set any app as their lockscreen shortcut, but you still need to unlock your phone after triggering the shortcut to jump into the app. This is unlike the behavior with other privileged shortcuts, like the default camera app, wherein you can access limited functionality without needing to unlock your phone.

The strings are similar to the ones that govern Snapchat’s lockscreen shortcut functionality on OnePlus and OPPO devices. So, I am confident that the feature will work similarly.

Samsung has been rumored to include an Instagram lockscreen shortcut on the Galaxy S24 series. It is not far-fetched to speculate that they would also take the opportunity to announce a Snapchat lockscreen shortcut.