Snapchat Hashtag Spotlight Scraper

Extract normalized public Spotlight cards from Snapchat Explore topic pages. Inputs can be hashtag names, values beginning with #, or exact public Snapchat /explore/ and /topic/ URLs.

What it returns

Each dataset row is one complete Spotlight result and can include:

• Stable result ID, raw snap/story IDs, Spotlight URL, result position, and searched hashtag
• Creator username, display name, public profile URL, follower count, and source-provided tier
• Description, caption, title, observed hashtags, play count, duration, dimensions, and media flags
• Thumbnail plus optional source-provided watermarked and unwatermarked video URLs
• Creation/expiration time, music fields, related topics, page metadata, and optional source-provided LLM caption metadata
• Source URL/status, proxy use, extraction method, and timestamp

Bulky raw card and snap objects are not retained. Incomplete cards without stable IDs, creator details, description, media, dimensions, hashtag context, and creation time are excluded.

Input

{
  "hashtags": ["food", "#travel"],
  "resultsPerHashtag": 10,
  "includeVideoUrls": true,
  "includeRelatedTopics": true,
  "includeLlmMetadata": false,
  "requestDelayMs": 250,
  "timeoutMs": 45000,
  "maxResponseBytes": 4000000,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Runs are bounded to 20 unique topics and 32 records per topic. Unknown fields, invalid topic values, and off-scope URLs fail before requests begin.

Access failures and page changes

The Actor expects a public __NEXT_DATA__ payload on www.snapchat.com/explore/<topic>. Access challenges, HTTP failures, missing state, and empty/incomplete result pages are written to the OUTPUT key’s bounded failures array and counters, not to the dataset.

Requests use a transparent Actor user agent, no retries, bounded response sizes/timeouts, and Apify Proxy by default in Cloud runs. The Actor does not log in, solve CAPTCHAs, patch fingerprints, or bypass access controls.

Video and image URLs can expire. Source-provided AI/LLM metadata is clearly labeled; this Actor does not generate it.

Responsible use

Use public data only for lawful research, follow Snap terms and robots guidance, and respect creator privacy, copyright, and media rights. Returned URLs do not grant permission to download, republish, or commercially reuse content.

Local validation

Run npm test, apify validate-schema, and apify run --purge --input-file qa-inputs/snapchat-hashtag-scraper/local-validation.json. Inspect both the default dataset and OUTPUT key.