The icons beside a friend's name
Snapchat emoji meanings
Hearts describe your Best Friend status. The flame tracks a streak, and the hourglass warns it may end. These are Snapchat's labels for activity in the app, separate from emoji someone types in a message.
Checked against Snapchat Support on .
Snapchat emoji meanings at a glance
These are the default Friend Emojis. If you have customized yours, check the status label in your settings.
| Emoji | Status | Meaning beside a name |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow heart | Besties | You send the most Snaps to each other. |
| Red heart | BFF | You have kept that mutual top spot for two consecutive weeks. |
| Pink hearts | Super BFF | You have kept that mutual top spot for two consecutive months. |
| Smiling face | BFs | This person is a Best Friend, but not your number one. |
| Grimacing face | Mutual Besties | You both have the same number-one Best Friend. |
| Sunglasses | Mutual BFs | Your Best Friends lists have at least one person in common. |
| Fire | Streak | You have an active streak. The adjacent number counts its days. |
| Hourglass | Streak ending | Your streak needs attention: exchange photo or video Snaps soon. |
| Birthday cake | Birthday | Today matches the birthday your friend entered on Snapchat. |
Source: Snapchat's Friend Emoji guide. Select an emoji name for its everyday meaning and copy button.
Yellow, red and pink hearts: what changes?
The heart sequence is 💛 → ❤️ → 💕. Yellow establishes a mutual number-one position; red and pink mark how long you have maintained it. The two-week and two-month periods must be consecutive. They are not the age of your account or the time since you added each other.
A streak and a heart can tell different stories
Imagine you exchange one Snap a day with Alex, but send most of your Snaps to Sam. Keeping a streak with Alex does not make Alex your number-one Best Friend. This is why a large number beside 🔥 is not a shortcut to 💕.
If your heart changes, your snapping habits or your friend's habits may have changed. Snapchat says its support team cannot restore a lost BFF or Super BFF icon. Read Snapchat's friendship guidance.
😊 vs 😎 vs 😬: read the relationship correctly
A useful way to read the faces is to ask: is the icon about this person, or about someone you have in common? 😊 describes this person. The sunglasses and grimace describe an overlap between your friendship lists.
For example, if both you and Alex have Sam at number one, 😬 describes that shared connection. It does not say that you and Alex are each other's number one. These icons report app activity, not a person's feelings.
Fire and hourglass: keeping or restoring a streak
For a streak between two friends, both people need to send photo or video Snaps to each other every day. A text Chat is not a substitute. The number beside 🔥 counts streak days, not total Snaps.
When ⌛ appears, exchange Snaps promptly if you want to continue. Snapchat does not specify an exact number of hours remaining after the icon first appears, so treat it as a warning rather than a precise timer.
If a streak has already expired, look for Snapchat's restore button beside the conversation. Restoration is available only for a limited time; check the app for eligibility and any price before proceeding. Recovering a streak does not restore a heart status.
How to change Snapchat Friend Emojis
- Open your Snapchat profile and tap the settings gear.
- In the App & Privacy section, open My App.
- Under Customize My App, choose Friend Emojis on iPhone or Customize Emojis on Android.
- Select the friendship status whose icon you want to change and choose an available replacement.
Available replacements vary by device. Changing an icon changes how you recognize the status; it does not earn that status. A custom pizza icon, for example, can occupy the place where this chart shows a heart.
Menu labels follow the current support instructions and may vary with app version. Check Snapchat's customization instructions.
Common questions
Does a yellow heart on Snapchat mean someone likes me?
It describes your activity in the app. A friendship status cannot tell you someone's feelings or whether they intend a romantic message. A heart typed into a message has a different context from an icon Snapchat puts beside a name.
Does a long Snapstreak guarantee a red heart?
No. A streak records daily exchanges, while heart status depends on your mutual number-one position. You can exchange Snaps daily while sending more to someone else.
How long do I have when the hourglass appears?
Snapchat's support guide says the streak is close to expiring, but does not give a fixed countdown from the hourglass appearing. If you want to keep it, both people should send a photo or video Snap promptly.
Why do my Snapchat emojis look different from this chart?
This chart uses the default icons. Check your Friend Emojis settings for custom replacements. The artwork can also look different on another phone without changing what the status means.
Emoji beyond the friend list
Emoji in apps
Understand app-specific artwork, custom emoji and shortcodes.
Emoji on iPhone and Android
Why the same character can look different on another phone.
An independent Slangary guide based on the linked Snapchat Support pages. Slangary is not affiliated with Snapchat.