Yes, Snapchat does allow you to see a list of someone’s best friends. However, it’s not immediately obvious how to access this information. Here’s a quick guide to finding and viewing someone’s best friends list on Snapchat.
What are Best Friends on Snapchat?
Snapchat ranks the people you snap and chat with the most as your “Best Friends”. These are the contacts that show up at the top of your chat screen. Snapchat calculates your best friends based on the frequency of your interactions over the past week. So your best friends list is constantly changing and evolving.
Having best friends on Snapchat simply means you have certain contacts that you interact with more frequently than others. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are your actual closest friends in real life. The best friends feature is just Snapchat’s way of surfacing your most active contacts.
Why Would You Want to View Someone’s Best Friends?
There are a few reasons why someone might want to look at another user’s Snapchat best friends list:
- Curiosity or snooping – you might just be curious to see who someone talks to the most on Snapchat.
- Relationship insight – viewing best friends can give you a picture of who someone is closest with in their social circle.
- Monitoring kids – parents may want to see their child’s best friends to get insight into their relationships and make sure they aren’t interacting with strangers.
While social media data like Snapchat best friends can provide relationship insights, it’s also important not to read too much into it. Best friends are calculated automatically based on snap frequency, so don’t jump to conclusions based only on Snapchat data.
How to View Someone’s Best Friends on Snapchat
Here are the steps to viewing another user’s Snapchat best friends list:
- Open a chat window with the person whose best friends you want to view.
- In the chat window, tap and hold down on their name at the top of the screen.
- This will open up their profile card. Tap on the smiley face icon next to their name.
- This will open their Snapcode and a list of options. Tap on “Add Friend” or “Add Best Friend”.
- This will open up the “Added Friends” screen. Here you will see a list of the person’s best friends for the past week.
The best friends will be listed from top to bottom in order of who they snap with the most. You can scroll down to see their full best friends list. Tap on any of the friends to view their profile and add them as a friend yourself.
Things to Keep in Mind About Snapchat Best Friends
Here are some important things to note about viewing someone’s Snapchat best friends:
- It’s not private information – Best friends lists are visible to other users, so it’s not considered private data.
- Lists change frequently – Best friends rankings change all the time, so a snapshot at one time may look very different from another.
- One-sided friendships – Just because someone is your best friend doesn’t mean you are theirs. Best friend status only indicates how much you snap that person.
- Don’t overinterpret – Best friend order is calculated automatically based on algorithms. Don’t take the data too seriously or make assumptions about real world relationships.
While Snapchat best friends can provide some interesting social insights, it’s important not to read too much into this data. Use your best judgment and remember that Snapchat interactions don’t always correlate with closeness of friendships in real life.
Removing Someone as a Best Friend
If you notice someone showing up as your Snapchat best friend and you want to remove them, there are a couple of options:
- Temporarily stop snapping them. Their best friend status is calculated weekly, so cutting back interactions for a while can knock them lower down or off your list.
- Permanently remove them as a friend. This will delete your entire Snapchat friendship history and remove them from your friends list and best friends.
To permanently remove a friend on Snapchat:
- Open your friends list and tap on the name of the person you want to remove.
- Tap the gear icon in the upper right corner.
- Select ‘Remove Friend’ to delete them from your friend list.
Removing a friend is permanent – you’ll lose your entire Snapchat history and connection. So only use this if you definitely want to remove them from your social circle.
Hiding Your Own Best Friends List
If you don’t want other people snooping on who your own Snapchat best friends are, there are couple options:
- Don’t add new friends – If you don’t add new Snapchat connections, other users can’t use the friend add trick to view your best friends.
- Frequently add and remove friends – This makes it harder for others to get an accurate read on your closest friends.
- Spread out your snaps evenly – Snapping all your connections evenly can result in fewer defined best friends.
Unfortunately there is no setting to make your Snapchat best friends list private. The only way to hide it is to be strategic about how you use Snapchat and who you add as friends.
The best friends feature is meant to encourage more engagement on Snapchat. But if you’re concerned about privacy, you can take steps to obfuscate your data.
Conclusion
Snapchat does make it possible to view someone else’s best friends list. However, it’s important not to misinterpret Snapchat best friend data, as it only shows frequency of interactions, not real world closeness. While best friend lists can provide some interesting social insights, be careful not to make assumptions based solely on Snapchat activity.
If you’re concerned about your own best friends being visible to others, you can be strategic about adding friends and spreading out your snaps evenly. At the end of the day, Snapchat is for fun – don’t take the best friends feature too seriously!