Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Links on Snapchat

Published February 22, 2025 · GoTo.now Team

TL;DR - Snapchat lets you attach a link to any Snap with the paperclip icon, and paste links straight into chats. Shorten the link first and it looks cleaner, stays trackable, and can be updated even after you've shared it.

Key points

• The paperclip icon attaches a link to any Snap or Story
• Links work in chats too - Just paste and send
• Short links look better on screen and are easier to trust
• Private click stats show how many people actually swiped up
• Verify any link before sharing it with a free link checker

Snapchat is built for quick, disappearing moments - But the links you share there don't have to be throwaways. A link on a Story can send real traffic to your shop, your video, or your event page.

The steps are easy once you know where the paperclip hides. Here's the full walkthrough, plus a few tricks that make your Snapchat links work harder.

Adding a link to a Snap or Story

This is the main move, and it takes about fifteen seconds:

1. Open Snapchat and take your photo or video as usual.
2. On the edit screen, tap the paperclip icon in the toolbar on the right.
3. Paste your link into the search bar (or type it - But pasting avoids typos).
4. Tap Attach to Snap at the bottom.
5. Post it to your Story or send it to friends.

Viewers will see a "More" or swipe-up prompt on your Snap. One swipe opens the link inside Snapchat's browser. That's the whole flow - No follower minimums, no special account type needed for basic link attachments.

Sending links in Snapchat chats

Sometimes you don't want a Story - You just want to send a link to one person or a group:

1. Open the chat.
2. Paste your link into the message box.
3. Send. Snapchat turns it into a tappable preview automatically.

Simple, but here's the catch: a long messy URL fills the whole chat bubble and looks like spam. Which brings us to the step most people skip.

Shorten the link before you attach it

Before you touch the paperclip, run your link through a URL shortener. It takes ten seconds and fixes three problems at once:

• It looks trustworthy. goto.now/drop reads better on a Snap than a URL full of question marks and tracking codes. People swipe on links they can read.
• It's countable. Snapchat tells you views, but not much about link taps. A short link counts every click in your private dashboard - Only you see the numbers.
• It's fixable. A Story lasts 24 hours, but a link in a chat sticks around. If the destination page moves, you edit the short link once and every copy you've sent still works. Short links on GoTo.now never expire, so even old shares keep doing their job.

With a free account you can also pick a custom ending, so the link on your Snap says goto.now/merch instead of random letters.

Check the link before your audience does

One bad link can burn trust fast, especially with an audience as young and quick-to-screenshot as Snapchat's. Two habits keep you safe:

Test it yourself. Open the link on your own phone before posting. Broken pages happen more often than you'd think.

Verify anything you didn't create. Sharing a partner's link, an affiliate link, or something a friend sent? Paste it into the free link checker first. It shows you the real destination without visiting it, so you never forward something sketchy to your whole Story audience.

Make your Snapchat links earn their place

A few small moves separate links that get swiped from links that get ignored:

That last one is underrated. When the same campaign runs on multiple social platforms, giving each one its own short link shows you exactly where your audience actually lives. Plenty of creators discover Snapchat quietly out-clicks their bigger accounts elsewhere.

Your step-by-step Snapchat link routine

Here's the whole guide compressed into a habit: shorten the link, attach it with the paperclip, tell viewers why to swipe, and check the click count tomorrow.

That's four small steps, and they turn Snapchat from a place where content disappears into a channel that sends steady, measurable traffic wherever you point it. Shorten your first link at GoTo.now and try it on today's Story.