Snapchat Planets Explained: How the Friend Solar System Works

Snapchat has implemented a tiered social ranking system known as Snapchat Planets, or the Friend Solar System, which assigns celestial emojis to users based on the frequency of their interactions. The feature serves as an evolution of the platform’s Friend Emojis, providing a visual hierarchy of a user’s closest connections through a series of planetary symbols.

The system tracks the volume of snaps exchanged between users to determine their placement within the solar system. These rankings are dynamic and shift as interaction patterns change over time, reflecting the current state of a user’s social proximity to their contacts.

The Hierarchy of Snapchat Planets

The planets are categorized by the level of interaction between two users, with Earth representing the highest tier of mutual closeness. The following rankings define the meaning of each planetary emoji:

• Earth: This symbol indicates that two users are each other’s number one best friend. It represents a mutual top-tier connection where both parties interact with each other more than anyone else on the app.
• Mercury: This emoji appears when a user is the number one best friend of another person, but that person is not the user’s number one best friend.
• Venus: This indicates that the user is the number two best friend of the other person.
• Mars: This symbol signifies that the user is the number three best friend of the other person.
• Jupiter: This ranking applies when a user is among the top best friends of another, typically falling within the number four to eight range.
• Saturn: This emoji represents a further step down in interaction frequency, generally indicating a ranking between number nine and fifteen.
• Uranus: This symbol typically identifies a friend ranked between number sixteen and twenty-five.
• Neptune: This ranking generally covers friends positioned between number twenty-six and fifty.
• Pluto: As the outermost planet in the system, this emoji indicates a friend ranked between number fifty-one and one hundred.

How the Ranking System Functions

The Friend Solar System is powered by an algorithm that monitors the exchange of snaps, which include photos and videos. Because the system relies on relative frequency, a user’s planet status can change if they begin interacting more frequently with a different contact or if their friend’s interaction habits shift.

Unlike Snapstreaks, which measure the consistency of daily communication, the planetary system focuses on the volume of interaction relative to other friends. This means a user could maintain a long streak with someone but hold a lower planetary ranking if they communicate more frequently with other individuals.

Privacy and Customization

Snapchat allows users to manage how these emojis appear. While the planetary system provides a quick reference for social standing, some users find the explicit ranking of friendships to be intrusive or confusing.

Users can disable or modify these settings by navigating to the Friend Emojis section within the app’s settings menu. From there, the Friend Solar System can be toggled off, removing the planetary symbols from the chat list and replacing them with standard emojis or no symbols at all.

The Role of Gamification in Social Connectivity

The introduction of the Friend Solar System is part of a broader strategy by Snapchat to gamify social interactions. By assigning tangible markers to the strength of a friendship, the platform encourages users to maintain high levels of activity to preserve or improve their status within their social circles.

This approach mirrors other features on the platform, such as the Snapscore and Streaks, which create a psychological incentive for continued engagement. By quantifying social closeness, the app transforms routine communication into a measurable metric of relationship health.