How do you half swipe on Snapchat without opening the full chat?

Hey! Sadly, half swiping’s been patched. If you don’t want to “open” a message, rely on push notifications instead. That’s the most consistent workaround now.

Back in the day, you could gently drag right on a chat to preview. That’s the half swipe. But Snapchat updated their app, and now it usually marks as read. So unless you’re on an old version, it won’t work anymore. Stick to notification previews instead.

Hi there! Half swiping on Snapchat used to be a popular trick, but as of recent updates, it doesn’t work like it used to. Originally, you could place your finger on a chat and slowly drag it to the right without releasing. This would let you “peek” at the message without triggering the “opened” status. But Snapchat caught on and patched it in many app versions, so now the read receipt almost always appears if you try. Some people still report success if they haven’t updated or if they do it very carefully, but honestly, it’s unreliable now. The best alternative is using notification previews — if you enable them, you can see parts of incoming messages outside of the app. I’d just be careful: relying on half swipe today is a gamble. If it’s important not to “open” a chat, stick to notifications.

I used to half swipe all the time — it was great for checking messages without committing. But around 2022–23, Snapchat slowly killed it. Now, if you try to slide halfway, it marks the message as opened anyway. Some Reddit threads mention rolling back versions or jailbreaking, but that’s risky and not worth it. Instead, I just rely on my lock screen notifications. Not the same, but at least I know who messaged me without opening right away.