A wave of nostalgia has been sweeping across social media in recent weeks, with users on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X revisiting trends, music, and aesthetics from 2016. Now, Snapchat is fully leaning into that sentiment with a new in-app experience designed to revive the era’s look and feel.
Snapchat has announced the launch of a special “2016 Flashback,” a curated collection of lenses inspired by the filters and visual style that helped define the platform a decade ago. According to the company, the initiative is meant to help users reconnect with “the moments, Lenses and vibe that defined a decade.”
The move comes in response to a sharp rise in nostalgia-driven activity on the platform. Snapchat says searches for “2016” lenses jumped by 613 per cent between January 1 and January 12, 2026, compared with the same period last year. Interest in the iconic Dog Lens alone increased by 352 per cent year over year, while searches for songs from 2016 in Snapchat’s music library rose by 621 per cent.
How to Access Snapchat’s 2016 Filters
To make it easier for users to relive what the company calls the “authentic, fun and real” Snapchat experience of 2016, the platform has grouped classic lenses into a dedicated category within the app. Users can find the filters by following these steps:
- Open the Snapchat app
- Tap “Explore” in the bottom menu
- Swipe to the “Best of all” category at the end of the menu
- Select a 2016-themed lens and apply it to a photo or video
The collection includes several of Snapchat’s most recognizable filters from the era, such as the original Dog Lenses (including Dalmatian variations), flower crowns, the well-known “rainbow vomit” effect, and lenses that add flowers or butterflies around the user’s head.
By embracing nostalgia at a time when users are actively searching for it, Snapchat is reinforcing its role as one of the defining platforms of mid-2010s social media—while giving a new generation of users a chance to experience the filters that once dominated timelines around the world.
