Snapchat Streaks Explained (2022)
What is a Snapchat Streak?
Snapchat Streaks, Snapstreaks, or simply Streaks, are a measure of your activity with a Snapchat user. When you send or receive Snaps from a person at least once for 3 consecutive days, a Snapstreak begins. You can identify an active Snapstreak by looking for the fire emoji (🔥) or flame emoji next to the contact’s name on the Chat screen.
The number next to the fire emoji keeps increasing to denote the number of days of an active Snapstreak. To keep a Snapstreak going, the app requires you to send and receive photos and video Snaps to your friends at least once within a 24-hour window. If you fail to do so, the Snapstreak will be lost. Therefore, in order to keep a long streak, you will have to ensure that you and your friend are exchanging snaps every day.
What Counts Towards Snapstreaks?
At this point, you might be wondering what contributes to a Snapstreak and what doesn’t. Well, Snapchat has made it clear that only two activities count towards Snapstreaks. They are as follows:
sending and receiving photo Snapssending and receiving video Snaps
It’s as simple as that. You won’t gain a Snapstreak if you text the person, post Stories (even if it is a private story), or for the Snaps sent to group conversations. It’s also worth noting that you should send the Snap right from Snapchat’s camera interface. Sending the Snap from your camera roll or Memories tab will not count towards your Snapstreak. If you use Snapchat Spectacles, snaps you share through them will also not count towards your streak.
What Do Snapchat Streak Emojis Mean?
Snapchat makes it obvious for users to know if they have an active Snapstreak. However, the meaning of emojis next to a Snapstreak can get confusing for a new user. For Snapstreaks, there are primarily 3 emojis – fire/flame (🔥) emoji, 100 (💯) emoji, and Hourglass (⌛) emoji.
What Does the Flame 🔥 Emoji Mean on Snapchat?
As soon as the fire emoji appears next to a Snapchat user’s name, you can rest assured that the Snapstreak has started. As mentioned above, you will have to send and receive Snaps for three consecutive days for the Snapstreak to start.
What Does the 100 đź’Ż Emoji Mean on Snapchat?
If you have been consistently maintaining your Snapstreak for 100 days, you will see the 100 emoji next to your friend’s name instead of the fire emoji. The app will switch back to the flame emoji on day 101.
What Does the Hourglass ⌛ Emoji Mean on Snapchat?
The hourglass emoji helps you identify a Snapstreak that is about to expire. It disappears soon after you send a new Snap to keep the Snapstreak active. If you see an hourglass emoji next to someone’s name on Snapchat, that means you have around 4 hours left to send or receive a Snap (picture or video) to save the Snapstreak.
Share Snapchat Streak in Story
Snapchat used to have a dedicated filter featuring the Snapstreak day count. While that is no longer available, you still have a way to flaunt your Snapstreak with your friend via Charms. Here’s how to do it:
- Open Snapchat and go to the profile page of the person you have a Snapstreak with. You can access the profile page by tapping on the display name of a user from the conversation window.
- Scroll down until you reach the “Charms” section and look for the Snapstreak charm. Now, tap to expand the Snapstreak charm and take its screenshot. Do note that Snapchat will notify your friend when you take a screenshot of the friendship profile.
- All you have to do now is post the screenshot to your Snapchat Story. Open the Snapchat story creation interface and choose the screenshot from the camera roll. You can choose to mention the person in the Story. Once done, pick “My Story” and press the blue “Send” button to show off your Snapstreak in your Snapchat story.
5 Simple Tips to Increase Snapstreak
Send Photo Snaps
The easiest way to increase Snapstreak is to send photo Snaps to the other person. If you are running out of ideas to send pictures of, you could just send a blank Snap to keep the streak going. Most long-term Snapstreaks are usually blank unless both participants are socially active and outgoing.
Send Video Snaps
If you find sending static images redundant or boring, you can choose to send video Snaps too. Record a video every day and send it to the person. Video Snaps also feel more personal, and it helps strengthen the bond with your friend.
Be Consistent
Since the streaks expire after 24 hours, it’s important to stay consistent and send Snaps to each other on a regular basis. If you often find yourself forgetting to send Snaps, you can schedule a reminder as an extreme measure. There are multiple reminder apps for iPhone and Android reminder apps to remind you so that you don’t miss another Snapstreak again.
Troubleshoot Snapchat if the app isn’t working
If your Snapchat app is not working properly, you won’t be able to send your daily Snap to retain your Snapstreak. In such cases, you will have to act quickly to fix your Snapchat app. There are multiple ways to fix the Snapchat app not working issue, and you can check our in-depth guide linked here for detailed instructions to help you with that.
Request to restore lost Snapstreak
In case you lost your Snapstreak due to a technical issue like a server outage, contact Snapchat’s support team and request them to restore your Snapstreak. We have a dedicated guide that you can check to get Snapstreak back.
Q: What does the number next to 🔥 mean on Snapchat?
The number next to the 🔥 fire emoji refers to the streak counter. It essentially denotes the number of days you have been on a Snapstreak with the person. The number keeps increasing as long as the Snapstreak is active.
Q: Can one person keep a Streak alive?
No, Snapchat requires both participants to send Snaps at least once in 24 hours to keep the Snapstreak alive.
Q: What can I do to increase Snapstreak?
You should send a photo or video Snaps to increase Snapstreak. Texting them on Snapchat doesn’t count towards your Snapstreak.
Q: Can I send a Streak from my camera roll?
No, you should send an image or video from Snapchat’s camera to maintain Snapchat Streak. Sending screenshots or photos from your gallery will not keep the Snapstreak active.
Q: How to recover lost Snapstreak?
If you lost Snapstreak due to a technical glitch, you can contact the Snapchat team to restore Snapstreak.
Q. Can I send a Streak from Snapchat Spectacles?
Unfortunately, no. Photos and videos taken by the Spectacles will not count towards your streaks on Snapchat.
Start Snapstreak with Friends on Snapchat
Young Snapchat users often consider long-term Snapstreaks to be a bragging right. If that’s you, we hope you found this guide helpful. In case you have any Snapstreak-related queries, let us know in the comments. Meanwhile, you might also be interested in learning how to create polls on Snapchat, find your Snapchat score, and save Snapchat videos. Check out the linked guides and let us know if you want to learn anything else related to Snapchat in the comments below.
