How to Make a Public Profile on Snapchat.

The short answer

To make a public profile on Snapchat as a person, tap your Bitmoji in the top left and select My Public Profile, then add a photo, background, bio and location. You need to be at least 16. A business creates its Public Profile in Ads Manager, under Public Profiles, with Create Profile.

Two routes, one name

A Snapchat public profile means two different set-ups, and it matters which one you start with.

A person, including a creator, turns on the Public Profile that sits alongside their private profile in the Snapchat app. A business creates its profile in Ads Manager, Snap’s business tool. Snapchat’s own help page is direct about it: Snapchat does not create Business Profiles, and businesses create and manage their own in Ads Manager.

For a brand, that is an Operations decision before it is a content one. It decides who holds the login and who can be added later.

Private profile versus Public Profile

Every Snapchat account starts with a private profile. Only your friends can see it.

A Public Profile is visible to anyone on Snapchat. It is where you publish to the wider Snapchat community: Snapchat lists Stories and Lenses among what you can post there.

That difference is the whole point of making one. A private profile is for people who already know you. A Public Profile is for people who do not.

Who can have a Public Profile

Snapchat sets out the rules on its help pages:

• The minimum age is 16, though laws in your country or region may set a different minimum.
• Public Profiles work slightly differently for 16 and 17 year olds than for people aged 18 and over.
• You may not have one if you have broken Snapchat’s Community Guidelines in the past.

There is also a Professional Account, which Snapchat describes as a version of the Public Profile with a Creator or a Business type. It is limited to people aged 18 and over, and Snapchat says it is a new feature that is not available to everyone yet.

How to make a public profile in the app

For a personal or creator account, the profile is not built from nothing. It is switched on and filled in:

1. Open Snapchat and tap your Bitmoji in the top left corner.
2. Select My Public Profile.
3. Add a profile photo and a background photo.
4. Write a bio.
5. Add your location.

Snapchat’s help page asks for all four of those details: profile photo, background photo, bio and location. A profile missing any of them looks unfinished to a stranger, which is the only kind of visitor a Public Profile is for.

If the option is not there

Snapchat says that if you tap your Bitmoji or your Story and see no Public Profile button, your account may not have the option.

Work through the likely reasons in order:

1. Your age. Under 16, or under the local minimum, there is no Public Profile.
2. Your birthday. Snapchat notes that if you qualify and still do not see one, you may need to set your birthday in your Snapchat settings.
3. Your history. A past breach of the Community Guidelines can remove the option.

Check the birthday setting before anything else if you know you meet the age rule.

How a business makes a Public Profile

If a business followed Snap’s first steps to create its Snapchat and business accounts, the Public Profile was set up as part of that. If not, Snapchat for Business gives these steps in Ads Manager:

1. Log in to Ads Manager.
2. Open the drop-down menu in the top left and go to Public Profiles.
3. On the Profile Manager page, click Create Profile.
4. Enter the business name, username, email and password.
5. Add a profile photo if you want one now, then click Create Public Profile.

Snapchat notes that you can change the username later, so a missing first choice should not hold up the set-up.

One profile per account, several per business

This is the catch the steps hide. Snapchat says you can have only one Public Profile per email and username, so each extra profile needs its own Snapchat account. It suggests thinking of a Public Profile as one distinct brand or person.

At the same time, a business can run more than one profile from the same Ads Manager account, and each profile can have its own contributors, managers and admins. That suits a business with several sub-brands.

So decide the structure first. One profile per brand, each with its own login, all managed from one business account, is how Snapchat has built it, and it is where a Snapchat for brands engagement usually starts.

What to fill in first

Snapchat for Business describes a complete profile as one with a profile photo, a bio and a cover photo. It adds the Public Display Name, a business category, links such as a website or product catalogue, and a business location where that applies.

The display name deserves more thought than it gets. Snapchat explains that the username is unique and used mainly to log in and to add friends directly, which it does not recommend brands do. The display name is what people see, and for verified profiles only the display name appears in search results.

Verification for business profiles

Verified business profiles carry a yellow star next to the display name. Snapchat says it grants this when two things are true: the profile represents a real, registered business, and the business is broadly known by the public.

To ask for it, a business contacts its Snapchat account team or Snapchat Support. Snapchat advises making sure the profile is complete, active and accurate first, so treat verification as the last step, not the first.

Keep the login with the business

Snapchat’s advice for a lost Public Profile is to regain access to the Snapchat account it is attached to, starting with the password reset. That tells you where the profile really lives: inside one login.

If that login belongs to one employee or an agency, the brand does not hold its own profile. Set up the account with a business email, keep the password where the team can reach it, and add people as contributors or admins rather than sharing the login. Getting multiple Snapchat accounts organised is easier before the second one exists.

What good looks like

A good brand set-up on Snapchat has one Public Profile per brand, each created in Ads Manager under a login the business owns, with the right people added at the right level.

Every profile has its photo, cover, bio, display name, category and link filled in before the first post. Content follows on a steady rhythm through Stories, Spotlight and Highlights, which Snapchat lists as what brings a profile to life, and people can subscribe to it.

For publishers moving to Public Profiles, our Public Profile checklist for brands covers the transition itself.

Next step

Before anyone creates the profile, decide which route applies, whose email it sits under and who needs access.

If you want social to run with more clarity, rhythm and accountability, NBK can help build the system.