Snapchat Emoji Meanings

Every emoji at a glance

• 💛 Yellow heart — #1 Best Friends — you send the most snaps to each other, and they do the same to you.
• ❤️ Red heart — #1 Best Friends with each other for two weeks straight.
• 💕 Pink hearts — #1 Best Friends with each other for two months straight.
• 😊 Smiling face — One of your Best Friends — you send them a lot of snaps, but not the most.
• 😎 Face with sunglasses — A mutual Best Friend — one of their best friends is also one of yours.
• 😬 Grimacing face — Your #1 Best Friend is their #1 Best Friend too — you snap the same person the most.
• 😏 Smirking face — You are their Best Friend, but they are not yours — they snap you a lot, you don't snap them back as much.
• 🔥 Fire (Snapstreak) — Snapstreak — you and this friend have snapped each other every day. The number shows the day count.
• 💯 Hundred — A 100-day Snapstreak milestone.
• ⌛ Hourglass — Your Snapstreak is about to end — snap them soon to keep it alive.
• 🎂 Birthday cake — It's this friend's birthday today (if they've enabled Birthday Party).
• 👶 Baby — You just became friends with this person on Snapchat.
• 🟢 Green dot — This friend is currently active in the app right now.
• 🔵 Blue dot — Indicates an unread chat or a new message in some views.
• 📍 Location pin — Shows a friend's location on the Snap Map (if they share it).
• 👻 Ghost (Snapcode) — The Snapchat logo / your Snapcode — scan it to add friends.
• ⭐ Star — This person has replayed one of your snaps in the last 24 hours.
• 🚫 Grey / no-entry — A pending friend request or a snap that couldn't be delivered (they haven't added you back).
• 🔒 Lock — A Private Story — the friend added you to a story only selected people can see. On stories in Discover, it can also mark subscriber-only content.
• ➡️ Filled red arrow — You sent a Snap without audio.
• 🟪 Filled purple arrow — You sent a Snap with audio.
• 💬 Filled blue arrow — You sent a Chat message.
• 👯 BFF charm — A Friendship Charm marking you as best friends — part of Snapchat's Charms.
• ♈ Astrological charm — Shows your and a friend's zodiac compatibility in Charms.
• 📅 Friendversary charm — Marks the anniversary of when you became Snapchat friends.
• 🏆 Trophy Case — Legacy achievements earned for using Snapchat features (largely replaced by Charms).

How Snapchat decides your friend emojis

Friend emojis update automatically based on your private Best Friends ranking — the people you exchange the most snaps and chats with. The hierarchy of hearts (yellow at #1, red after two weeks, pink after two months) rewards consistency on both sides, while the smirk exposes one-sided friendships. Because the ranking recalculates constantly, emojis can appear or vanish overnight when your snapping habits change — losing a heart just means the balance shifted, not that anyone did anything.

Related Snapchat guides

Decoding the fire emoji and keeping streaks alive is covered in our Snapchat Streaks Guide, the Snapchat+ solar system is explained in Snapchat Planets, and whether screenshots notify is in our Screenshot Notification Checker — all free.