Charles Taylor

When you see SOS, don’t panic. Your phone isn’t broken—it’s just stuck without carrier service. You can still call 911 or local emergency numbers. The fix is usually moving to an area with better reception or checking your SIM/roaming settings.

The key is to edit the audience of the automatic post. Once you upload your new profile photo, Facebook creates a timeline update. Tap the three dots on that post, choose Edit Privacy, and set it to Only Me. This way, nobody gets a notification, and it won’t appear in feeds. The photo still changes, but only you see the post. I’ve done this many times when I didn’t want people asking questions or flooding with comments.

Hi, this one trips up a lot of people because Snapchat never publishes the exact formula, but most of us long-time users have figured it out. Chats don’t count toward your Snap score. The score only increases when you send or receive snaps (photos or videos), post to your story, or occasionally when you maintain streaks. If you’re only typing text back and forth, your score isn’t moving.

I tested this with a friend once. We messaged back and forth for an hour with only text, then refreshed our scores—nothing changed. But as soon as I sent one snap (even a blank one), the score jumped immediately.

The confusion comes because if you’re mixing chats and snaps, it’s easy to think the chat is making the number climb. But no—only snaps and stories do. Chats are great for conversation, but they won’t help you chase a higher score.

Open Settings → Control Center → tap the green plus next to Screen Recording. Then swipe down from the top-right and you’ll see the record button. Tap to start, tap again to stop. Video saves in Photos.