Snapchat isn’t just an app for sending blurry photos of your lunch anymore. It’s a social hierarchy. If you’ve ever opened the app and wondered why that person you haven't talked to in three days is still sitting at the top of your list, you aren't alone. Understanding what are best friends on snapchat requires peeling back a layer of code that the company keeps surprisingly guarded. It isn’t a manual choice. You can't just pick your favorites like you did on MySpace in 2005. Instead, a proprietary algorithm watches every move you make. It tracks who you snap, who snaps you back, and how fast you do it.
Honestly, it’s a little bit like a digital heartbeat. If you stop interacting, the pulse fades.
The system is designed to be a mirror of your real-world social habits. Or, at least, who you're most addicted to talking to digitally. It creates a private list—visible only to you—of up to eight people. These are the contacts the app thinks you care about most. It's supposed to make life easier so you don't have to scroll through five hundred contacts to find your roommate. But because humans are humans, it’s turned into a status symbol. People get stressed when they drop off someone's list. They get suspicious when a "random" person climbs to the number one spot.
The Secret Math Behind Best Friends on Snapchat
Snapchat doesn't just count the number of messages. That’s a common misconception. If you send twenty snaps to one person in a single hour, but they don't reply, the algorithm doesn't necessarily view that as a "best friendship." It views it as a one-way street. The core of the logic is reciprocity.
The app looks for a consistent "ping-pong" effect. You send a photo. They send a video. You chat. They heart a message. Each of these actions carries a specific "weight" in the backend. While Snap Inc. hasn't released the exact $x + y = z$ formula, developers who have analyzed the app’s behavior suggest that direct Snaps (photos and videos) hold significantly more weight than text-based chats.
Group chats are a different beast entirely. Sending a snap to a group of ten people doesn't boost your "Best Friend" score with all ten individuals equally. It’s the one-on-one, direct-to-camera interaction that fuels the ranking. This is why you might see a "Best Friend" emoji next to someone you barely speak to in person, but you happen to trade daily "streaks" with.
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Decoding the Emojis: More Than Just Yellow Hearts
The emojis are the visual scorecard for these rankings. They change constantly. One day you're "BFFs" and the next you're "Mutual Besties," which basically means your best friend is also someone else's best friend. It’s a little messy.
The Yellow Heart is the starting line. It means you are each other's #1 Best Friend. If you can manage to keep that up for two weeks straight, that heart turns Red. This is where the commitment kicks in. If you hit the two-month mark? You get the Pink Hearts. Losing a two-month Pink Heart status because someone forgot to reply for 48 hours is a genuine tragedy in some social circles.
Then there’s the Grimacing Face. This one is awkward. It means your #1 Best Friend is also their #1 Best Friend. It’s the app’s way of saying, "Hey, you guys are competing for this person's attention." The Smirk emoji used to be a staple—signaling that you were their best friend but they weren't yours—but Snapchat removed it years ago because it caused way too much drama. It was essentially a "someone is obsessed with you" notification.
Why Your List Looks Weird Right Now
Have you ever noticed a person you haven't snapped in weeks just... lingering?
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The algorithm has a "decay" rate. It doesn't reset every night at midnight. It works on a rolling window. If you had a massive, 500-message conversation with someone three days ago, their "score" in the system is so high that it might take a week of silence for them to drop below someone you snap once a day.
Also, Snapchat sometimes experiments with "re-engagement." They want you to use the app. If they notice you haven't talked to your former #1 in a while, they might keep them on your list a little longer just to tempt you into sending a snap to maintain the status. It's a psychological nudge. It's smart engineering, but it's also kinda manipulative if you think about it too hard.
Privacy and Who Can See Your Best Friends
A huge point of anxiety for users is whether other people can see their list. Back in the early days of the app, Best Friend lists were public. You could go to anyone’s profile and see exactly who they were talking to most. It was a chaotic era for relationships.
Today, what are best friends on snapchat is a private matter. Only you can see your specific list of eight. However, the "Mutual" emojis (the Grimacing Face or the Sunglasses emoji) give hints. If you see a Sunglasses emoji next to a friend’s name, it means you share a "Best Friend." You don't know which one, but you know your circles are overlapping.
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This privacy shift was a response to the "Snapchat stalking" culture that became toxic in the mid-2010s. By making the lists private, Snapchat moved from being a public social scoreboard to a personalized utility tool. It’s now about your convenience, not their status.
Can You Edit or Delete Your Best Friends?
Technically, no. There is no "Edit" button. You can't drag and drop your mom to the bottom of the list because she snaps you too many pictures of her garden. You have two choices if you want someone gone:
- The Slow Fade: Stop interacting with them. Eventually, their score will decay, and someone else will overtake them. This is the "natural" way.
- The Hard Reset: Block them and then immediately unblock them. This wipes the interaction history for the algorithm. They will disappear from your Best Friends list instantly. Just be warned: if you had a Streak going, it’s gone forever.
Most people choose the slow fade. It's less confrontational. But if you're trying to hide a Best Friend from a nosy partner or just want to declutter your interface, the block-unblock trick is the only "manual" workaround that actually functions in 2026.
The Impact of Stories and Maps
Does watching someone's Story affect the ranking? No.
Does checking their location on Snap Map count? Also no.
The algorithm is strictly about direct communication. You could watch every single Story someone posts for a year, but if you never send them a Snap or a Chat, they will never appear on your Best Friends list. It’s a "pay to play" system, where the currency is your active attention, not your passive consumption. This is a vital distinction between Snapchat and platforms like Instagram or TikTok, where "lurking" still influences your feed. On Snap, lurking gets you nowhere.
Managing Your Digital Circle
If you want to actually curate your list to be useful, you have to be intentional. The app is a tool. If your Best Friends list is filled with people you don't actually like, it's a sign you're spending your digital energy in the wrong places.
- Audit your Streaks. Are you snapping people just to keep a number alive? If so, they’re clogging up your Best Friends list. Let the streak die. It’s okay.
- Pin your actual favorites. Snapchat allows you to "Pin" conversations to the top of your chat screen. This is different from the Best Friends list. Pinning is manual. If you pin your three actual best friends, it doesn't matter what the algorithm thinks—they will always be at the top.
- Use the search bar. If you’re worried about who’s on your list, remember that the "Recents" list below the Best Friends is often more accurate for day-to-day needs.
The Best Friends feature is ultimately a snapshot of your habits. If you don't like what you see, change the habit. Send more snaps to the people who actually matter and stop "maintenance snapping" the people who don't.
Next Steps for Your Account:
Go to your Chat screen right now. Look at the people in your top eight. If there’s someone there you haven't had a real conversation with in a month, try the "Block and Unblock" method to refresh your list. Then, manually Pin your top three real-life friends by long-pressing their names and selecting 'Chat Settings' > 'Pin Conversation.' This gives you the benefits of the Best Friend shortcuts without being a slave to the algorithm's math.