Guide to Snapchat Publishing: Stories and Spotlights

Overview

You can now publish Snapchat Spotlights and Stories directly from Sprout Social. Snapchat Spotlights are permanent, public short-form videos distributed through Snapchat's entertainment feed, which reaches more than 500 million monthly active users. Snapchat Stories are time-limited posts—composed of one or more individual pieces of content called Snaps—that remain visible on your profile for 24 hours (or longer for public profiles that allow saving to Highlights, or those with Snapchat+).

What You Can Do

• Publish and schedule Snapchat Spotlights for your Public Profile from Sprout's Compose window.
• Publish Snapchat Stories (and the individual Snaps that make them up) to your Public Snapchat Profile directly from Sprout.
• Cross-post to Snapchat alongside other social networks in a single Compose session.
• View your scheduled and sent Snapchat posts on the Publishing Calendar.
• Apply publishing tools like Approval Workflows, Labels, and Campaigns to Snapchat content.

How to Use

Connecting your Snapchat Public Profile

If you have not already done so, ensure you have connected your Snapchat Public Profile using the steps available here: How do I connect my Snapchat Profile in Sprout?  

Publishing a Snapchat Spotlight

1. Open Compose.
2. Select your Snapchat Public Profile from the profile picker.
3. Choose Spotlight as your post type.
4. Upload your vertical video. 
5. Optionally add a description of up to 160 characters. Hashtags are supported.
6. Choose Send Now, Schedule, or Queue.

Publishing a Snapchat Story

1. Open Compose.
2. Select your Snapchat Public Profile.
3. Toggle This is a Story as your post type.
4. Add the Snaps (individual photos or videos) that make up your Story.
5. Choose Send Now, Schedule, or Queue.

Media Requirements

Snapchat Spotlight Post: 

• Media per post: One video per Spotlight post
• Media type: Vertical video only
• Supported file types: .mp4, .mov
• Video duration: 5–300 seconds
• Captions: Optional, up to 160 characters

Snapchat Story Post: Images

• Max media per Story: 10 items (images + videos combined)
• Supported file types: .jpg, .jpeg, .png
• Max file size: 20 MB per image
• Min resolution: 720 × 1280 px
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Note: image uploads are supported for Story posts; Spotlight posts support vertical videos only.

Snapchat Story Post: Videos

• Max media per Story: 10 items (images + videos combined)
• Supported file types: .mp4, .mov
• Duration: 5–60 seconds per video
• Min resolution: 540 × 960 px
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Auto-splitting: Snapchat automatically splits each video into ~10-second Snaps server-side. A 60-second video produces up to 6 Snaps.

FAQs

See this article for FAQs