Nothing’s better than sharing moments and memories with friends. Snapchat lets you do both by taking photos and recording videos to send to your contacts, or just keep for yourself.

With the ability to personalise and save your Snaps, knowing Snapchat’s hidden options and features can take them from being simply Snapisfactory to Snapsational.

Here are the App Store Editors’ favourite ways to make your Snaps shine.

Adding text and stickers to a video Snap is a fun way of expressing yourself and grabbing attention. Make sure your words and stickers match your energy by pinning them to moving elements – say your face or pet – and having them automatically follow the object around the screen. Once you’ve recorded your video, add text by tapping the screen or a sticker by tapping the sticker icon on the right-hand side.

To pin something to an object, position it over the object before tapping and hold until you see the Pin to Snap option. (You can also use the Set Duration option to have it appear for only part of the Snap.) As an object moves, pinned stickers and text will follow as if stuck in real life – and even change size and rotation to match the movement.

Need to free up your hands while shooting your video Snaps? Activate hands-free recording mode by starting a video Snap as usual (by holding down the record button), then sliding your finger to the left without taking it off the screen.

Once you touch the lock icon, hands-free mode will be enabled – meaning you can safely take your finger off the button and keep recording while you put down your phone. It’s perfect for shooting dance routines.

Snapchat’s Map tab is a great way to find friends around you, discover local highlights and record your memories. You can keep full control over which friends see your location from the settings menu on the Map screen, accessed by tapping the cog symbol in the top-right corner.

Enable Ghost Mode to hide your location from all friends, or customise your visibility so that all your friends, only specific friends or all your friends except specific people can see your location.

You can save Snaps to your Memories to make it easy to find them later, but some Snaps you might want to keep extra private. To protect saved pictures and videos under 10 seconds behind a passcode, turn on My Eyes Only. Swipe up from the camera screen to find your collection of Memories: Snaps you’ve made and Snaps you’ve saved. Tap and hold a Snap, then tap Hide Snap (My Eyes Only) – the first time you do this, you’ll set a passcode to safeguard your Snaps.

You can find Snaps saved to My Eyes Only by swiping sideways on the Memories screen and putting in your passcode. You can also automatically save Snaps to My Eyes Only by default in your profile settings, keeping everything as private as possible.

Looking forward to a birthday, party, concert or something else? Create a countdown so you never miss your next chance for a Snap with friends! Head to your profile page and scroll down to find the Countdowns section.

Hit the New button to create a countdown to a date and time of your choice, give the countdown a name (use emojis for extra fun!) and share it with friends. You’ll see a helpful reminder of how long is left on the timer on your profile, so you never miss a moment again!

Some BFFs are red heart-worthy, while others might be more of a purple heart – or even a cheeky lipstick kiss! Express your personality and make sure your Snapchat profile reflects your friendships by customising your Friend Emojis.

Head to the Settings menu by tapping the cog on your profile page. Find the Friend Emojis option under the Additional Services section. From there, you can swap Snapchat emojis as much as you like – including BFFs, mutuals, new friends and Snapstreaks! Pick from dozens of emojis, from smiley faces and hand gestures to animals and plants, which will appear on your friends’ profiles.