Social media has gotten so big that your real-world best friends and online best friends are often one and the same. Snapchat is a great example of this. Basically, it shows who your best friends are every time you want to send a snap.
But how do they know who their best friends on the platform are? Well, there are a few things they take into account.
Many people wonder if Snapchat groups influence their best friend lists. Let’s answer that question first, and then we’ll dig a little deeper to reveal everything you need to know about your Snapchat best friends.
Do Groups Identify Best Friends?
In short – no. Group messages have no effect on the order in which contacts appear in your list. When you send a snapshot to a group, it doesn’t count as a specific interaction with each of the members.
This also means that group messages are not included in Snapstreaks, which many users care about. Groups can’t have lines either; that means group messages have no effect on your Snapchat stats.
Now that we’ve figured that out, you might be wondering what determines who your best friends are. Let’s take a look at what Snapchat considers.
What Affects Snapchat Best Friends?
On the surface, the answer to this is pretty simple. Snapchat determines your best friends based on the level of interaction between you and them. However, there are some details you need to know if you want to fully understand how this works.
The first thing you need to know is the Snapchat score. It shows how often you use the app and takes into account the following:
- Number of snapshots you sent
- Number of snapshots you take
- Number of stories you’ve published
There is another algorithm Snapchat uses to determine your score, but it is unknown.
If your interaction with a particular person is much higher than others, you will consider that person among your best friends. But here’s the tricky part: Even if you don’t send anything to a person and they send you loads of snaps, they can still appear on your best friends list. This can lead to quite annoying situations as anyone can see your best friends list.
Still, if you exchange enough photos with your real best friends, you can prevent spammers from appearing on your best friends list. The system isn’t perfect, but you can still keep your favorite contacts at the top of the list.
What Do Emojis Next to Best Friends Names Mean?
You’ve probably noticed that each person has certain emojis next to their name. If you’re wondering what they mean, it’s actually an indicator of the level of interaction between you and your friends. Even though you can customize the emojis, the default ones mean:
- Heart Emoji (“BFF”) – If you’ve been at the top of their list for two weeks, it will appear next to a person who is your best friend on Snapchat.
- Two Hearts (“Super BFF”) – The rules are the same as for the heart emoji except the duration is two months.
- Yellow Heart – Shows the moment when you and your best friend were #1 on each other’s charts.
- Fire Emoji (“Snapstreak”) – You will see a number next to it. The number shows how many days you and your friend have been chatting without breaking the line. Each time you send the last message of the day, you have 24 hours to continue the series.
- Baby Emoji (New Friend) – Appears when you add a new contact to your friend list.
Last word
To sum it up, Snapchat groups have no effect on your best friends. A snap you send to a group won’t count towards your streak with any of the individual group members, so keep that in mind if you’re trying to keep up the Snapstreak with your friend.
Even if you can’t quite check the list of Snapchat’s best friends, if one of your friends and you start sending each other more photos, they’re much more likely to be at the top of your list. Try this yourself and take a look at the results.
You should also keep in mind that Snapchat changes its algorithms quite often, so this may not always work. But for now, frequent messaging with individual users, not groups, is the only way to impress your best friends list.
