Here's What Every Emoji And Icon In Snapchat Means

Snapchat is up there as one of the most feature-packed social media platforms — there's everything from goofy filters that let you swap faces with anyone (or anything), to realistic ones that let you fake a video call with Cristiano Ronaldo. You can scan food ingredients to find a recipe, use the Snap Map to locate your friends, or star in a short thriller movie — there's so much to get busy with on the platform.

As a design choice, and probably to make the app more intuitive, Snapchat uses different symbols and emojis to convey different meanings. If you use the platform frequently, you'd have noticed the colored arrows, squares, and circles in Stories, Snaps, and Chat.

While this is what makes Snapchat so engaging for its 363 million daily active users (via Statista), it also makes the platform a tad difficult to keep up with. It doesn't help that Snapchat doesn't offer users a tutorial or walk-through of these symbols — the only way to learn is by slowly getting acquainted with them as you use the platform. But, you can get acquainted much faster with this list of all the emojis and symbols on Snapchat, and what they mean.

The original purpose of social media platforms is to foster connections between people, and Snapchat upholds that in an unusual way. The platform uses emojis to symbolize the strength of your connection with each friend. You'll find the emojis displayed next to each friend's username in your Chat list, and they'll also appear next to each friend's Stories on the Discover page.

There are 13 emojis in total, and they're assigned to each friend based on a few metrics: how long you've been friends with them, how frequently you both send Snaps and messages back and forth, and how you both interact with other users. A friend's emoji can change with the nature and frequency of your interaction with them over time, and if you don't message someone on Snapchat for a while, their assigned emoji may disappear completely.  If you're worried about the privacy of these rankings, you can rest knowing that these relationship emojis are only visible to you; they're not public (at least not anymore. When the Best Friends emoji was first released, Snapchat allowed others to see your Best Friend's list). Also, keep in mind that emojis will look different depending on which operating system your device uses.

Here's what all the Snapchat emojis mean:

• Baby 👶: You've just added this person as a friend on Snapchat.

• Fire 🔥: You've started a "Snapstreak" with this person, which means you've both sent each other at least one snap a day for at least three consecutive days.

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• Hourglass ⌛: Your Snapstreak is going to end soon. To save it, you and your friend must send a Snap both ways ASAP. To be clear, only Snaps (selfies or videos) save streaks. If you only send a chat (a text message), you might lose your streak.

• Birthday Cake 🎂: It's this friend's birthday!

• Smiling face 😊: This is one of your best friends, but they're not the best friend.

• Yellow heart (Besties) 💛: You and this user are each other's #1 best friend. You send the most snaps to them, and they match the energy.

• Red Heart (BFF) ❤️: You and this user have remained each other's #1 best friend for two weeks in a row!

• Sunglasses Face 😎: You share a mutual best friend with this user.

• Smirking Face 😏: You're this person's best friend, but they're not yours. They've sent you more Snaps than you have sent them.

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• Two Pink Hearts (Super BFF) 💕: You and this user have remained each other's #1 best friend for two months in a row! 

• 100 💯: You and this user have maintained your Snapstreak for 100 days in a row!

• Grimacing Face 😬: You and this user share the same number one best friend. 

• Sparkles ✨: This user is in a group chat you're in.

• Gold star emoji 🌟: This user has replayed your Snap in the last 24 hours.

• Pushpin 📌: You have pinned your conversation with this user to the top of your Conversations list.

Although you cannot change the category itself, Snapchat allows you to change the emoji for each friend category. So, if you'd prefer a handshake emoji as your BFF symbol instead of the red heart, you can make that happen. To customize your friend emojis, launch Snapchat and tap your avatar at the top of the page.

1. Select the Settings icon. 
2. Scroll down the menu and tap "Manage" under the "Additional Services" section (if you're on iOS). 
3. Select "Friend Emojis."
4. Select the category you want to customize and choose the new emoji.  

You can also customize the emoji's skin tone from the previous menu. If you're on Android, tap "Customize Emojis" under "Features" to personalize your friend emojis.

Snapchat does provide a list of all the friend emojis and their meanings here, but it's not the most obvious location. Some users never explore the app to that point, plus there are still some emojis missing.

If you're into astrology, here's some good news. Snapchat adds a zodiac emoji to each user's profile, as long as they provided a date of birth while signing up for their account, so that makes it easy to know your friends' signs. As you can see above, my account's zodiac sign is Virgo, which indicates that the birth date I entered for the account is between August 23 and September 22. Unlike friend emojis that appear next to the username, you can only view the zodiac emojis on a user's profile page. Here's all of them and what they represent:

♒ Aquarius: Born January 20 – February 18

♓ Pisces: Born February 19 – March 20

♈ Aries: Born March 21 – April 19

♉ Taurus: Born April 20 – May 20

♊ Gemini: Born May 21 – June 20

♋ Cancer: Born June 21 – July 22

♌ Leo: Born July 23 – August 22

♍ Virgo: Born August 23 – September 22

♎ Libra: Born September 23 – October 22

♏ Scorpio: Born October 23 – November 21

♐ Sagittarius: Born November 22 – December 21

♑ Capricorn: Born December 22 – January 19

Finally, let's unpack the meanings of the colored shapes you must have noticed when you send snaps or messages in Chat. You can send videos (with or without audio), photos, and text on Snapchat, and the platform color-codes each format based on their content, sender, recipient, and view status. There are circles, squares, and arrows of different colors, some filled in and others merely outlines. These icons provide at-a-glance information about snaps that you send or receive — for example, you can know to reduce your phone's volume when you see the symbol that indicates a Snap has audio. But of course, you have to know what the icons mean first. Thankfully, Snapchat provides an extensive guide to these screen icons, so if you're ever confused, you can consult the list.

We hope this article has helped you better understand Snapchat and subsequently helps you navigate the platform more easily.