Snapchat’s Dreams feature represents a significant integration of generative artificial intelligence into the platform’s user experience, allowing users to create fantastical AI-generated images of themselves in various scenarios, from mermaids in deep seascapes to renaissance-era royalty. However, since its rollout beginning in Australia and New Zealand before expanding globally, this feature has generated considerable user concern regarding privacy, data usage, and control over personal information. This comprehensive report examines the technical mechanisms of Snapchat Dreams, explores the multiple methods available to disable or manage the feature, analyzes the underlying privacy and data concerns that motivate users to turn off the functionality, and contextualizes Dreams within Snapchat’s broader artificial intelligence ecosystem. Understanding how to properly disable Dreams requires not only following specific technical steps but also comprehending the interconnected nature of Snapchat’s AI-powered features and the various privacy settings that control how personal data is processed and utilized by the platform.
Understanding Snapchat Dreams and Its Technical Architecture
Snapchat Dreams operates as a generative AI feature fundamentally built upon user-provided selfie data combined with advanced machine learning algorithms. The feature generates personalized images based on selfies that users voluntarily submit to the platform, creating a personalized generative AI model that produces variations of the user’s likeness placed in different imaginative scenarios and contexts. When users first access Dreams, they navigate to their Memories section, where a dedicated Dreams tab provides access to the feature’s functionality. The onboarding process requires users to go through what Snapchat terms the “My Selfie” flow, during which they must capture and upload multiple selfies from different angles, including frontal views, side profiles, and images with the face pointed upward and downward.
The technical infrastructure of Dreams relies on what Snapchat describes as a personalized generative AI model created specifically for each user. The initial pack of Dreams, containing eight AI-generated images, is provided to users at no cost, with subsequent packs available for purchase at approximately one dollar each. Notably, users should be aware that the generation of these AI-generated image packs requires processing time, with Snapchat indicating that the first pack of Dreams may take between twenty to thirty minutes to generate after the user completes the onboarding process. This delay reflects the computational demands of running generative AI models that must process user selfies and create novel variations featuring the user’s likeness in imaginative scenarios.
The Dreams feature represents Snapchat’s competitive response to other AI-powered image generation applications that gained popularity on the app marketplace. Applications such as Lensa, with its “magic avatars” feature, and Remini demonstrated significant consumer demand for AI-generated selfie capabilities, prompting Snapchat to integrate similar functionality directly into its platform. By incorporating Dreams into the core Snapchat experience through the Memories section, Snapchat eliminated the need for users to download separate applications, though this integration strategy also created new privacy considerations regarding how the platform handles and processes facial biometric data.
User Motivations for Disabling Dreams: Privacy Concerns and User Sentiment
The decision to disable Snapchat Dreams stems from multiple interconnected motivations that reflect broader concerns about data privacy, algorithmic autonomy, and corporate use of biometric information. A significant driver of user interest in disabling Dreams relates to Snapchat’s controversial terms and conditions regarding the use of user likenesses in advertising content. When users activate the My Selfie feature that powers Dreams, Snapchat’s terms explicitly state that the company may use “you (or your likeness)” in “personalized sponsored content and ads” that will be “visible only to you” and includes “branding or other advertising content of Snap or its business partners without compensation to you”. This clause has generated considerable user backlash, with many Snapchat users expressing frustration about the prospect of seeing highly realistic AI renderings of their own faces used in advertisements without their explicit permission or financial compensation.
Beyond the advertising dimension, users have expressed broader privacy anxieties about Snapchat’s data collection practices related to Dreams and other AI features. The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office conducted a provisional investigation that revealed Snapchat had “inadequately assess[ed] the data protection risks posed by the generative AI technology, particularly to children”. This regulatory finding underscores legitimate concerns about how the platform handles sensitive biometric and personal information, particularly when vulnerable populations such as minors utilize the service. The difficulty of removing AI-generated facial data from large language models and machine learning systems once it has been ingested into training processes has further amplified user concerns, as research indicates that deleting data after it has been incorporated into AI models presents significant technical and practical challenges.
User sentiment regarding Snapchat’s AI features has reflected widespread dissatisfaction and a sense of having mandatory features imposed without meaningful opt-out mechanisms. Reddit users discussing Snapchat’s AI implementation have expressed sentiments such as “I wish I could delete this parasite off my phone” and “I don’t hate Snapchat, I just hated the AI thing it forced upon me”. These expressions of frustration highlight a perceived lack of user agency in deciding whether to engage with AI-powered features, with many users viewing the integration of Dreams and other AI capabilities as an unwelcome intrusion into their Snapchat experience. Additionally, some users have noted that Dreams content may reappear over time even after attempting to clear or disable it, creating an ongoing sense of loss of control over platform functionality.
The energy consumption and environmental impact of generative AI has emerged as another motivation for users seeking to disable Dreams and similar features. Research indicates that generating a single high-quality photograph using generative AI consumes approximately as much energy as fully charging a smartphone, and generative AI systems broadly create millions of tons of electronic waste, require massive quantities of water, and expel substantial emissions. Environmentally conscious users have cited these concerns as motivations for avoiding or disabling AI-powered image generation features on social media platforms.
Primary Method: Deleting AI Selfie Data to Disable Dreams
The most direct method to disable Snapchat Dreams involves accessing the AI Selfies section within Settings and removing or clearing the user’s stored AI selfie data. Since Dreams functionality depends entirely on the selfies that users have provided during onboarding, eliminating this source data effectively disables the feature’s ability to generate additional images. To implement this approach, users should begin by opening the Snapchat application on their mobile device and tapping their profile image, typically represented by their Bitmoji or personal profile photograph, located in the top left corner of the home screen. This action navigates the user to their profile page, where they will see their account information and access to Settings.
From the profile page, users should locate and tap the gear icon, commonly representing Settings, typically positioned in the top right corner of the profile interface. This action opens the comprehensive Settings menu, which contains numerous configuration options for the Snapchat account and platform features. Within this Settings menu, users need to scroll downward to locate the section labeled “My Account,” which contains account-specific controls and options. Under the My Account section, users should identify and select the option labeled “AI Selfies,” sometimes also referred to as “My Selfies” or “AI selfies,” depending on the current version of the Snapchat application.
Upon accessing the AI Selfies section, users will encounter information about their stored selfie data if they have previously completed the Dreams onboarding process. The critical action at this stage involves locating and tapping the option that reads “Clear my AI selfies” or similar terminology indicating the removal or deletion of stored selfie data. Some users may also see an option labeled “Delete Selfie” or “Clear Selfie”. By confirming this action, users instruct Snapchat to remove the personalized generative AI model created from their facial data, thereby eliminating the foundational information upon which Dreams depends to function.
It is important to note that while this method effectively removes the user’s stored AI selfie data and prevents future Dreams generation, some users have reported that Dreams-related content may occasionally reappear after clearing AI selfies, suggesting that a single deletion may not permanently and completely disable all traces of the Dreams feature across all aspects of the Snapchat application. Users who experience this reappearance phenomenon may need to repeat the clearing process or investigate whether the application has been updated with new default settings that restore Dreams functionality. Additionally, users should be aware that this method removes their stored selfies but does not necessarily prevent the feature from being offered again in future app updates or versions.
Secondary Management Options: Controlling Dreams Generation Permissions
Beyond completely disabling Dreams through selfie deletion, Snapchat provides more granular control options that allow users to restrict who can generate Dreams using their likeness or to customize their interaction with the Dreams feature. These secondary management approaches recognize that some users may wish to retain the ability to generate Dreams for personal use while preventing others from utilizing their facial data to create Dreams featuring their likeness. In the AI Selfies or My Selfies settings section, users can identify options related to permissions for Dreams generation. Specifically, users can access controls that allow them to designate who is permitted to generate Dreams featuring their likeness by selecting options such as “Only me,” which restricts Dreams generation exclusively to the user themselves, preventing friends or other users from creating Dreams content that features the user’s face.
Setting this permission to “Only me” provides a compromise approach for users who wish to retain access to Dreams functionality for personal entertainment or creative purposes while preventing unauthorized use of their facial biometric data by other Snapchat users. This granular permission structure reflects evolving privacy frameworks that attempt to balance individual user choice with platform functionality. However, users should recognize that selecting “Only me” still permits Snapchat as a corporate entity to retain, process, and potentially utilize the user’s stored selfies for the company’s own purposes, including the generation of personalized advertisements as stipulated in the platform’s terms of service.
Advanced Privacy Controls: Managing Selfie Use in Advertising
A particularly important privacy control dimension involves preventing Snapchat from utilizing the user’s My Selfie data in personalized sponsored content and advertisements, despite the aggressive opt-in default positioning of this setting in the platform’s terms of service. To prevent Snapchat from incorporating AI-generated versions of the user’s likeness into advertisements, users should navigate to the My Selfie settings section as previously described, then locate the toggle or switch labeled “See My Selfie in Ads” or similar terminology indicating advertising usage. By toggling this setting to the “off” position, users instruct Snapchat to exclude their AI-generated likenesses from the company’s personalized advertising content, thus preventing the scenario where users would encounter advertisements featuring highly realistic AI renderings of their own faces without explicit permission or compensation.
According to technical documentation provided by privacy-focused resources, this process involves opening Snapchat, tapping the profile picture in the top left corner, tapping the gear wheel icon in the top right corner, scrolling down to locate the My Selfie setting, and then moving the toggle to the left on the box specifically labeled “See My Selfie in Ads”. While this action does not prevent Snapchat from retaining the user’s selfie data or from using it for other purposes, it specifically prevents the advertising-related use case that many users find most objectionable. Users should be aware, however, that advertising companies may still create and display advertisements that inadvertently feature images of users if other Snapchatters have uploaded photographs containing them, or if Snapchat has retained metadata that associates the user with certain characteristics or demographics.
Notifications Management: Reducing Dreams-Related Interruptions
While not technically disabling Dreams, users can substantially reduce their exposure to Dreams-related notifications and suggestions by adjusting notification preferences specific to the Dreams feature. Some users have reported success in diminishing Dreams interruptions by navigating to the Snapchat Settings, locating the Notifications section, and identifying options specifically related to “Dream Suggestions” or “Dreams Notifications”. If available in the user’s Snapchat version, toggling this notification setting to the “off” position prevents Snapchat from sending push notifications and suggestions encouraging the user to engage with Dreams functionality. While this approach does not eliminate the Dreams feature from the platform entirely, it substantially reduces the active interruptions and reminders that might otherwise prompt engagement with the feature.
Additionally, users concerned about Dreams-related content appearing in their feed can dismiss individual Dreams posts or suggestions by pressing and holding on the unwanted content and selecting the “Dismiss story” option when it appears. This action removes the specific Dreams content from view without necessarily disabling the entire feature, though users should note that such dismissed content may occasionally reappear, particularly if Snapchat has implemented default settings that recreate Dreams-related suggestions after application updates.
Broader Privacy Controls Related to AI Features
Understanding how to disable Dreams effectively requires contextualizing the feature within Snapchat’s larger ecosystem of AI-powered functionality and recognizing that disabling Dreams alone does not necessarily control how Snapchat uses personal information related to other AI features. Snapchat may utilize images, videos, audio, and text content that users have posted publicly on the platform, including posts to Spotlight, Public Stories, and the Snap Map, to develop, train, and improve the company’s generative AI models. This training process involves a combination of automated and human review of publicly posted content. Users who wish to prevent their public content from being incorporated into Snapchat’s generative AI training processes can access additional privacy controls by navigating to Settings, scrolling to the Privacy Controls section, and locating the option labeled “Manage My Information”. From this interface, users can toggle off the setting that permits Snapchat to use their public content for generative AI development and improvement purposes.
It is crucial for users to understand that opting out of this training data use does not affect AI training that has already occurred using the user’s previously public content, as the data has already been incorporated into Snapchat’s machine learning models. However, opting out does prevent future use of the user’s public content for these AI training purposes going forward. Additionally, even if users opt out, Snapchat retains the right to use content for other purposes consistent with its Privacy Policy and may still process information about users if they appear in public content posted by other Snapchatters.
Related Snapchat AI Features and Their Control Mechanisms
To comprehensively manage their engagement with Snapchat’s AI infrastructure, users should understand that Dreams represents only one component of a broader array of AI-powered features that the platform has integrated into its core experience. My AI, Snapchat’s ChatGPT-powered artificial intelligence chatbot, represents another significant AI feature that many users have sought to disable or minimize. Unlike Dreams, which many users can completely remove by deleting their AI selfies, My AI maintains a more persistent presence on the Snapchat platform. Regular Snapchat users can unpin My AI from their chat feed or clear it from their chat feed, though these actions do not permanently delete or disable the AI chatbot itself for users who do not subscribe to Snapchat+.
To unpin My AI from the chat feed, users should swipe right from the Camera screen to access the Chat screen, press and hold on the My AI entry, and select the “Unpin Conversation” option. To remove My AI from the chat feed more thoroughly, users can press and hold on My AI, select “Chat Settings,” and then choose “Clear from Chat Feed”. However, both of these actions result in temporary hiding rather than permanent deletion; My AI may reappear if the user sends a new message to it or if Snapchat pushes an application update that restores the default chat feed configuration. For users concerned about data retention, Snapchat+ subscribers reportedly have more comprehensive control options, including the ability to permanently remove My AI from their chat list, though this premium functionality remains inaccessible to free-tier users.
AI Snaps in Memories represents another AI-powered feature accessible through the Memories section of Snapchat, where users can generate AI-created images by selecting packs and allowing the platform approximately twenty to thirty minutes to generate personalized AI Snaps based on submitted selfies. The management and disabling procedures for AI Snaps mirror those for Dreams, as both features rely on the My Selfie data stored in the user’s account. Additionally, Snapchat has integrated generative AI into its Lens filters and creative tools, with the platform indicating the use of AI through sparkle icons (✨) or specific disclaimers in the user interface.
Privacy Considerations: Data Retention and Biometric Information
The decision to disable Snapchat Dreams should be understood within the broader context of how Snapchat collects, retains, and processes facial biometric data. Even users who successfully clear their stored AI selfies should recognize that Snapchat has collected and processed their facial information during the onboarding process, and the company may have incorporated their biometric data into training datasets or model development processes before the user initiated the deletion. Research on the persistence of data in large language models and machine learning systems suggests that once facial data has been ingested into AI models during training, complete removal becomes technically challenging or impossible, even when users request deletion through standard account controls.
Furthermore, Snapchat’s metadata collection processes mean that information about user interactions with Dreams—including timestamps, frequency of use, and patterns of engagement—may persist even after users delete their stored selfies. This metadata, which Snapchat describes as information about Snaps and Chats such as the date, time, sender, and receiver, is retained by the company for purposes including feature analysis, user behavior understanding, and platform improvement. According to Snapchat’s privacy documentation, most metadata is deleted after thirty days, though if Snapchat determines that longer retention is necessary, the company will remove personal identifiers before processing the data for analytical purposes.
User Experience and Implementation Challenges
The process of disabling Snapchat Dreams, while conceptually straightforward, has presented implementation challenges for some users due to variations across different versions of the Snapchat application, differences between iOS and Android platforms, and the company’s habit of periodically changing interface terminology and menu structures. Multiple tutorial sources from 2024 and 2025 indicate that the precise wording of menu options, the location of toggles, and the specific interface elements may differ depending on whether users are accessing Snapchat on Apple iOS devices or Android devices.
Some users have reported that after clearing their AI selfies and successfully disabling Dreams, the feature has reappeared following automatic application updates, suggesting that Snapchat may have configured new versions of the application to re-enable Dreams functionality by default or to restore the Dreams section within Memories to a default visible state. This behavior raises questions about the permanence of user privacy and feature-disabling choices on the Snapchat platform and whether the company treats user-initiated feature disablement as temporary preferences rather than persistent account configurations. Users seeking to maintain Dreams in a disabled state may need to periodically verify that their AI selfie data remains cleared and that Dreams functionality has not been re-enabled through system updates or account setting changes.
Watermarking, Transparency, and AI Content Recognition
Users should be aware that Snapchat has implemented watermarking mechanisms to indicate when content has been created using generative AI, a transparency measure designed to prevent deception regarding the authentic nature of images. When exporting or saving AI-generated images from the Snapchat application to a device’s camera roll, Snapchat typically adds a watermark featuring a Snap Ghost with sparkles to indicate that the image was created using generative AI and does not represent real-world scenarios. However, users should recognize that not all AI-generated images will necessarily include this Context Card or watermark, and images created with non-Snap products may not be labeled as AI-generated. Additionally, Snapchat explicitly prohibits the removal of the Ghost with sparkles watermark, stating that removing these indicators constitutes a violation of the platform’s Terms of Service.
Strategic Implications and Platform Design Philosophy
The necessity for users to navigate complex settings menus and unclear interface options to disable Dreams reflects broader questions about Snapchat’s platform design philosophy and whether the company views user privacy preferences as central to the product experience or as secondary considerations to be relegated to obscure settings sections. The default positioning of Dreams functionality with its aggressive “opt-in” structure for advertising usage, combined with the multiple steps required to disable the feature, suggests that Snapchat has designed the platform to encourage AI feature engagement while making disengagement a non-obvious, technically complex process. This design approach contrasts with privacy-first platform philosophies that would position privacy controls prominently and require explicit opt-in rather than opt-out mechanisms for data-intensive features.
Environmental and Ethical Concerns
Users who successfully disable Snapchat Dreams should recognize that this action, while protecting their personal data and reducing their contribution to AI-generated content proliferation, does not prevent Snapchat from continuing to operate the Dreams infrastructure for other users or from investing in the computational resources required to maintain generative AI services. The environmental impact of generative AI remains an important consideration for users concerned about broader questions of digital sustainability. As noted in previous sections, the generation of high-quality images through generative AI consumes energy equivalent to fully charging a smartphone, and the aggregated environmental burden of widespread AI image generation across millions of users represents a significant ecological consideration.
Putting AI Dreams to Bed
Disabling Snapchat Dreams requires users to navigate multiple interconnected privacy controls and feature-management settings, reflecting the complexity of modern artificial intelligence integration into consumer social media platforms. The primary method involves accessing the AI Selfies section of Settings and clearing stored selfie data, an action that eliminates the personalized generative AI model upon which Dreams functionality depends. However, comprehensive privacy management extends beyond simple Dreams disablement to encompass management of advertising usage permissions, notification preferences, and broader controls over how Snapchat utilizes publicly posted content for AI model training and improvement. Users should recognize that completely removing all traces of their engagement with AI features may not be entirely possible given the persistence of metadata, the difficulty of removing biometric data from trained machine learning models, and Snapchat’s retention policies for account information.
The proliferation of AI-powered features across social media platforms like Snapchat reflects industry-wide efforts to capitalize on generative AI capabilities while frequently prioritizing these features’ placement and prominence over users’ actual privacy preferences and privacy-protective defaults. Users seeking to maintain control over their personal information and biometric data should adopt a proactive stance involving periodic review of privacy settings, immediate disablement of AI features they do not wish to use, and consideration of whether continued participation in platforms with aggressive AI integration aligns with their privacy values and environmental concerns. The technical knowledge required to properly disable Dreams and related features should not, ideally, be necessary—instead, platforms should design privacy-protective defaults that require explicit user opt-in for data-intensive generative AI capabilities. Until such design philosophies become standard across the social media industry, users must remain vigilant in understanding and managing their platform interactions through the existing complex setting structures and feature controls that platforms like Snapchat have implemented.
