What does the yellow heart mean on Snapchat? Yellow heart emoji, explained

In just over a decade since its launch in 2011, Snapchat has become one of the most popular photo-sharing apps on the web. The app’s approach to social media was nothing short of innovative at the time it was created as social media users stressed over the permanence of their posts. Snapchat aimed to alleviate those fears by offering a more temporary solution that still allowed users to express themselves by sharing quick pictures or videos that were only viewable once. Over the years, the app expanded their focus to stories—a place users could post videos or pictures for a wider audience to view until the media disappeared 24 hours after it was uploaded.

If you’re one of the millions of Snapchat users, none of this information will come as a surprise. With all of these changes, the app has remained relatively easy to use, but occasionally even an app as straightforward as Snapchat implements some confusing new changes. Frequent users may notice emojis popping up seemingly overnight next to some of their friends’ names. You may wonder why your emojis might look different than your friends’ or why these emojis even pop up in the first place. If you’re particularly observant, you might have noticed a yellow heart emoji that only appears next to one friend’s name. If you’ve ever wondered about Snapchat emojis and the yellow heart emoji’s meaning, read on.

What does the yellow heat emoji mean on Snapchat?

Snapchat uses emojis to show how close two users are. Specifically, different emojis on Snapchat offer insight on how long you’ve been friends with another user and how often you snap each other. Not all emojis are used to indicate your relationship status; some are also used to indicate when you have a streak with someone or when that streak is about to expire.

The yellow heart emoji shows up next to a friend’s name when you are both each other’s number one best friend on Snapchat (yes, that’s the official term). To become each other’s number one bestie, you have to each send each other more snaps than you send to any other person on Snapchat. The yellow heart emoji doesn’t necessarily mean you send a lot of snaps; you could just send two per day to one person and still achieve the yellow heart. The yellow heart just means you both snap each other the most out of your contacts.

Snapchat users don’t only care about the yellow heart because it means you’re Snapchat BFFs; it can also be a general indicator of your relationship in real life. Since you only see the yellow heart if you’re both each other’s best friend on Snapchat, some users interpret the loss of a yellow heart as a sign the other person doesn’t value your friendship as much as you value theirs. Ultimately, we think you shouldn’t read too much into the yellow heart emoji. Instead, just appreciate the cute emoji next to your friend’s name, however long it lasts.