How to download Snapchat Memories with captions
Snapchat's export saves captions, stickers and drawings as a separate see-through image next to each photo or video. To get them back, that layer has to be placed on top of the memory again, which we do for photos and videos.
Step by step
- Request your export from Snapchat Follow our export guide.
- Add the files to BackupMemories Leave "Put captions and stickers back on photos and videos" ticked. It's on unless you change it.
- Want the clean versions too? Open "Options" and tick "Also keep copies without captions". You then get both.
Why captions come out separately
In the exports we’ve checked, a memory with a caption, sticker or drawing comes as two files: the photo or video itself (…-main.jpg or …-main.mp4) and an image of just the caption layer (…-overlay.png). The layer is see-through everywhere except the caption.
So if you import the files as they are, your photo app shows the photos without their captions, plus a pile of odd see-through images.
Where the black squares come from
The caption layer depends on its see-through background. Some apps and tools ignore that and fill the background in with black, which is how people end up with captions on a black square, or memories that look blacked out.
How BackupMemories puts them back
For photos, we lay the caption over the photo at the right size and the right way up, and save the result. For videos, we put the caption on every frame at high quality and keep the sound as it was. Memories without a caption are left exactly as Snapchat stored them, apart from the date and place we add.
But a caption covers part of the picture. So if you’d like the untouched version as well, tick “Also keep copies without captions” and you get both side by side.