Ever noticed a heart emoji pop up next to someone’s name on Snapchat and felt proud (or slightly competitive)? That’s the point. Snapchat’s heart emojis aren’t decoration—they’re signals from the Friend Emojis system, based on how often you and a friend exchange Snaps daily. They reveal your mutual #1 Best Friend and then level up with consistency: yellow 💛, red ❤️, and pink 💕.
In this article you’ll learn what each Snapchat heart emoji means, how it compares to other friend icons, how to earn every heart tier, and how to keep it without turning Snapchat into a full-time job.
| Snapchat heart emoji | What it means | Time required | How to earn/keep it |
|---|---|---|---|
| đź’› Yellow (Besties) | Mutual #1 Best Friend | Current status | Snap each other more than anyone else |
| ❤️ Red (BFF) | Mutual #1 Best Friend streak | 2 weeks | Stay each other’s #1 for 14 days (Snapchat Support) |
| 💕 Pink (Super BFF) | Long-term mutual #1 Best Friend | 2 months | Stay each other’s #1 for 2 months |
What the heart emoji on Snapchat really means
When you spot a heart emoji on Snapchat next to someone’s name, it is not just cute decoration. Each heart color shows how often you and that person snap each other, and for how long you have kept it up. In other words, the heart emoji on Snapchat is a quick shortcut to understanding your closest connections on the app.
These small icons can quietly boost your chats. They motivate you to keep streaks alive, show you who you are closest to, and even help you avoid awkward misunderstandings about who is really your number one friend on Snapchat.
How Snapchat heart emojis work
On Snapchat, heart emojis are part of the “Friend Emojis” system. You do not choose them manually. Snapchat assigns them automatically based on your snap activity with other users. When your snapping patterns change, the emojis update too.
You will only see heart emojis with people who are high on your Best Friends list, and only when the connection is mutual. That is why hearts feel a little more special than other icons like the fire streak or smiley faces.
The three main Snapchat heart emojis
Snapchat currently uses three heart styles to track how close you are to someone based on snaps sent and received.
Yellow heart: brand‑new number one best friend 💛
The yellow heart is the first “level” of heart emoji on Snapchat. It means:
- You are this person’s #1 Best Friend
- They are your #1 Best Friend too
- You both send the most snaps to each other right now
So if you see a yellow heart, that person is currently the person you interact with the most on Snapchat, and the feeling is mutual. If either of you starts snapping someone else more often, the yellow heart can disappear quickly.
Red heart: two weeks of top‑tier snapping ❤️
The red heart is the next step up in your Snapchat relationship. It tells you:
- You have been #1 Best Friends with each other
- For two weeks in a row
To keep the red heart, you both need to keep sending each other more snaps than you send anyone else. If you slip, the red heart can drop back to yellow, or disappear entirely if your snap habits change.
Pink hearts: two months of #1 best friend status đź’•
Pink hearts are the highest “heart level” you can reach. It means:
- You have been #1 Best Friends with each other
- For two full months straight
In Snapchat terms, pink double hearts show long term consistency. You and this person keep your friendship active over time, and you both choose each other as your top contact again and again.
How hearts compare to other Snapchat friend emojis
Snapchat has other emojis that describe your friendships, such as smiling faces, grimacing faces, and fire icons for streaks. Hearts are special because they focus on the single most important connection in your Friend list.
Here is a quick way to think about it:
- Regular Best Friends: people you snap with a lot
- Heart Best Friends: your mutual number one, with time milestones
So you might have several Best Friends but only one heart per friend tier at a time. That exclusivity is part of what makes the heart emoji feel more meaningful.
Why the heart emoji on Snapchat can boost your chats
The heart emoji on Snapchat is not just for fun. It quietly nudges you to connect more and keep your most important chats active.
It motivates you to stay in touch
Seeing a yellow, red, or pink heart can encourage you to:
- Reply more quickly
- Send updates even on “boring” days
- Share random snaps just to keep the connection active
You know that if you slow down, the heart might disappear or drop a level. That little bit of gamification can help you stay in closer contact with people who matter to you.
It helps you map your social circle
You might talk to a lot of people, but your hearts show you:
- Who you talk to most consistently
- Which friendships are deepening over time
- When a new person is becoming important in your daily life
This is especially useful if you juggle friends from school, work, family, and online communities. The heart emojis give you a quick visual summary of your strongest Snapchat ties.
It can make conversations feel more personal
When someone sees a heart next to your name, they know you choose each other often. That little symbol can make inside jokes, daily snaps, and quick “good morning” photos feel more meaningful. It signals that the connection is not random.
Sometimes, the heart can even act as an icebreaker. You might tease each other about “keeping the red heart” or celebrate when your pink hearts finally arrive.
How to get each Snapchat heart emoji
You cannot force Snapchat to give you a heart emoji, but you can influence it by how you use the app.
Getting the yellow heart
To move a friend into yellow heart territory, you both need to:
- Send each other more snaps than you send anyone else
- Keep it up consistently for several days
Text chats help your friendship, but Snapchat mainly counts snaps for the heart system. If you are texting a lot but barely snapping, you might not see a heart even if you feel close in real life.
Turning yellow into red
Once you have the yellow heart, the red heart is all about consistency:
- Keep each other as your #1 Best Friend
- For two weeks in a row
If either of you starts snapping another person more than you snap each other, the path to red gets interrupted. It might feel a little competitive, which is exactly what keeps many people more engaged.
Earning the pink double hearts
Pink hearts need time:
- Maintain your mutual #1 Best Friend spot
- For sixty consecutive days
That means:
- Regular daily snaps
- Fairly equal effort from both sides
- Avoiding long gaps in communication
If you stop for a week, you risk losing the chain that leads to pink hearts.
Quick reminder: Friend Emojis, including hearts, can change without warning if your snap behavior changes. You do not get a notification when this happens, so you only notice when you check your friend list.
Common questions about Snapchat heart emojis
Can you have more than one heart with different people?
No. At any given time you only have one mutual #1 Best Friend, so you can only have one heart per tier per person. You could have a yellow heart with one friend and a red heart with another at different times, but not multiple hearts at the exact same moment.
Can you turn a non‑best friend into a heart friend quickly?
You can speed things up by:
- Snapping them more often than anyone else
- Encouraging them to snap you back frequently
- Keeping that pattern consistent over several days
However, if they already have a strong #1 Best Friend, it might take longer before you replace that person in their list.
Do chats count or only snaps?
Snaps are the main factor. Regular snaps and photo messages carry more weight than text‑only chats. If you want to influence the heart emoji on Snapchat, focus on sending actual snaps, not just messages.
Can you customize or turn off Snapchat heart emojis?
You can customize what icons show for your Friend Emojis in your Snapchat settings, but the app still follows the same logic behind the scenes. So you can change the symbol you see, but not the rules that decide who gets which level.
Using heart emojis correctly in your own messages
Snapchat heart emojis are one thing. The heart emojis you choose to send in your own snaps, captions, or messages can send different signals entirely. If you are unsure which heart fits your relationship or your brand, having a clear reference helps.
You can explore nuanced heart emoji meanings and how each color tends to be interpreted. For a quick visual overview, you can also browse heart emoji meanings colors to see how people commonly use each shade in English‑language digital culture.
If you want fast access for your snaps and stories, you can use a handy heart emoji copy paste tool, then save your favorite hearts inside Snapchat’s “Recently Used” section or your device keyboard.
Choosing the right heart color beyond Snapchat
Outside of Snapchat’s automatic system, you choose which heart emoji to send. That choice can affect how your message is read, especially by people who pay a lot of attention to emoji tone.
Here is a simple way you can think about the classic colored hearts when you are snapping or posting:
- Red heart emoji: romantic love, deep affection, classic “I love this”
- Pink heart emoji: sweet, flirty, cute, often softer than solid red
- Yellow heart emoji: friendly, cheerful, “you are awesome” vibes
- Orange heart emoji: warm but not intense, supportive without sounding romantic
- Green heart emoji: growth, nature, sometimes jealousy or “support” for causes
- Blue heart emoji: calm, trustworthy, often used for brands or teams
- Purple heart emoji: glam, creativity, sometimes compassion or fandom
- Black heart emoji: dark humor, edgy tone, or more serious emotions
- White heart emoji: pure, minimal, calm, and often used with aesthetic posts
If you send hearts to family or close relatives over Snapchat, you might prefer something warm but not overly romantic, such as the yellow, orange, or white hearts. For more ideas, you can skim heart emoji for family.
How heart emojis differ across apps
If you use multiple platforms, it helps to remember that heart emojis can be interpreted slightly differently from app to app, even when they look similar.
For example:
- Instagram often uses hearts for likes and reactions, so a simple red heart feels casual
- Twitter, now X, originally used a heart as its main like button, which shaped how people see it in replies
- Messaging apps like WhatsApp or iMessage use hearts for reactions and inline replies, which can make them feel lighter or more routine
If you want to see how different platforms display hearts visually, you can browse heart emoji designs. This matters if you care about consistency between Snapchat, heart emoji instagram, heart emoji facebook, heart emoji twitter, or heart emoji whatsapp.
Tips to keep your Snapchat heart without overthinking it
You do not need to obsess over every snap to maintain your heart emojis. A few simple habits help you keep your favorite hearts glowing without turning Snapchat into a chore.
Try these small changes:
- Send one genuine snap a day
Short clips of your routine, your pet, your commute, or something you found funny are enough to keep the line open. - Reply with snaps instead of only text
If your friend sends a snap, respond with a snap whenever you can. This doubles the “activity” that Snapchat sees between you. - Use hearts in a natural way
Add a heart emoji in your caption when you genuinely feel affection, excitement, or appreciation. Do not spam them just to get attention. People notice the difference. - Accept that hearts can change
Your life, schedule, and social circles shift. If your Snapchat heart moves from one friend to another, it does not mean your relationship is broken in real life. It simply reflects your current snap behavior.
Make the most of heart emojis across your devices
If you often switch between phone, tablet, or desktop, having easy access to hearts keeps your style consistent.
You can:
- Learn how to type heart emoji on different devices
- Check out heart emoji keyboard tips to keep your favorites close
- Compare heart emoji android and heart emoji ios appearances so you know what your friends are actually seeing
- Explore heart emoji unicode if you are curious about the technical side, such as why some hearts show up differently in older apps
For more playful options in your snaps, you can also experiment with heart emoji with arrow, heart emoji with sparkles, heart emoji with ribbon, or expressive heart emoji faces. These can add more personality to your stories and replies.
When heart emojis might send the wrong message
While heart emojis often bring you closer to people, they can also cause confusion if the meaning is unclear.
Watch out for:
- Sending red hearts to someone who might read it as romantic when you only mean friendship
- Using black or broken hearts in serious contexts where they might seem harsh or disrespectful
- Overusing hearts in work or professional chats where a simple thumbs up would be more appropriate
If you lean into dramatic expressions, you might sometimes prefer the broken heart emoji for exaggeration. Still, think about your audience and their expectations, especially if they are not native English speakers or are new to emoji culture.
Final thoughts: Let Snapchat hearts guide, not define, your connections
The heart emoji on Snapchat gives you a quick snapshot of how active and mutual your top friendships are. Yellow celebrates new closeness, red marks steady connection, and pink rewards long term consistency. Used well, those symbols can motivate you to check in more often and make your daily chats feel more meaningful.
At the same time, your real relationships are bigger than one icon in your friend list. Use the Snapchat hearts as gentle nudges, not strict grades. Pay attention to how often you laugh, share, and support each other, on and off the app. If you pair that with thoughtful use of the right heart emoji colors across your snaps and messages, your digital conversations will feel warmer and more intentional.
FAQs
What does the yellow heart mean on Snapchat?
It means you and that person are mutual #1 Best Friends—you send the most Snaps to each other right now.
What does the red heart mean on Snapchat?
Red ❤️ means you’ve been mutual #1 Best Friends for two weeks in a row.
What do the pink hearts mean on Snapchat?
Pink 💕 means you’ve been mutual #1 Best Friends for two months in a row—the top “heart tier.”
Do chats count, or only Snaps?
The heart system is driven by Snap activity between you and that friend, not just regular text messages. (Text can matter socially, but hearts track snapping patterns.)
Can I have more than one heart at the same time?
Hearts reflect a mutual #1 Best Friend status, so you typically only hold that top spot with one person at a time (though your “Best Friends” list can include multiple people).
Can I customize or turn off heart emojis on Snapchat?
You can customize Friend Emojis (change which icon represents a status), but the underlying logic for who earns what still applies.
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