Making your best friends list private on Snapchat prevents other users from seeing who you interact with the most on the app. Your best friends list shows Snapchat users you send snaps to frequently and who send snaps to you often. By default, this list is public for all your friends to see. If you want to hide it, you can change a setting to make your best friends list private.
Why Make Your Best Friends List Private?
There are a few reasons you may want to make your best friends list private on Snapchat:
- Avoid drama or jealousy – Friends may get upset if they see they aren’t on your best friends list.
- Control how you interact with friends – You may not want some friends to know you frequently Snap other friends.
- Stop snaps from some friends – Friends may snap you more if they see you are best friends.
- Keep conversations private – You may not want others knowing who you talk to the most.
Making your list private prevents anyone else from seeing your best friends and stops possible drama, jealousy, or unwanted interactions. It gives you control over who can view your Snapchat activity.
How to Make Your Best Friends List Private
Making your Snapchat best friends list private only takes a few taps in the app. Here are the steps:
- Open the Snapchat app and tap your profile icon in the top left corner.
- Tap the settings gear icon in the top right corner of your profile screen.
- Scroll down and tap “See My Friends.”
- Toggle off “Allow My Friends to View My Friends” to make your friends list private.
That’s it! Snapchat will no longer show your best friends list publicly. You can repeat these steps to toggle it back on if you change your mind later.
Accessing Your Best Friends List
Even with a private best friends list, you can still view it yourself within Snapchat by:
- Going to your profile and tapping the smiley face icon by your score.
- This shows your “Friendship Profiles” based on how often you interact.
- Tap on any profile to view your shared snaps and chat statistics.
So your best friends list still exists, but now only you can access it. No one else will be able to see who you interact with most.
Other Ways to Customize Your Friends List
In addition to making your best friends private, Snapchat gives you a few other options to customize your friends list:
Sort Friends Manually
You can override the automatic best friends ordering and manually sort friends yourself. To do this:
- Go to your profile and edit your friends list.
- Tap “Sort Friends” at the top.
- Drag and drop friends to put them in your preferred order.
This customized order will then be visible to you and your friends.
Hide Suggested Friends
Snapchat’s “Suggested Friends” feature recommends adding people you may know based on your contacts and social graphs. If you don’t want friends seeing these suggestions:
- Go to your profile and tap the settings gear icon.
- Toggle off “Suggest Friends From Contacts” to hide suggested friends.
This prevents Snapchat from recommending friends for you and others to add.
Delete Friends
If you want to remove friends from seeing your snaps or stories altogether, you can delete them from your friends list. To do this:
- Go to your friends list and tap “Edit Friends” at the top.
- Tap the X icon next to any friend you want to delete.
- Confirm you want to remove them as a friend.
This completely removes them from your friends list and prevents them from viewing your Snapchat activity.
What Happens When You Hide Your Best Friends?
Once you make your Snapchat best friends private, here is what will happen:
- The best friends area will disappear from your profile for other users.
- Friends will no longer see the list of users you interact with most.
- You will stop being able to see the best friends of other users.
- Snapchat will continue tracking your best friends privately.
- You can still see your own best friends list in the app.
Essentially, it just removes the public display of best friends. The underlying tracking and your ability to see the list remains unchanged.
What About Groups and Stories?
Making your best friends private does not affect groups or stories on Snapchat. Users you add to groups or stories will still be visible to anyone you share that content with. Your best friends list only applies to your personal snaps sent to individuals.
If you don’t want specific friends seeing your group stories, you’ll need to manually remove them from each group. Your best friends setting does not control story or group visibility.
Can You See Old Best Friends Data?
Unfortunately, once you make your best friends private, there is no way to retrieve or see the old public data on Snapchat friends. However, some third-party apps claim to capture and save your Snapchat best friends data historically.
Apps like My Story Flick and SnapSpy state they can show your previous best friends list even if you later hide it. However, be cautious when using third-party apps, as many violate Snapchat’s terms and conditions.
Best Friends, Points, and Snapchat Scores
It’s important to understand Snapchat scores, points, and how they relate to your best friends list:
- Your Snapscore is a running total of Snaps you’ve sent and received.
- You gain 1 point for sending a Snap and 1 point for opening a received Snap.
- Points contribute to your Snapscore and rank friends by volume of Snaps exchanged.
- Your best friends list shows the friends you exchange the most Snaps with.
So while your best friends list shows your closest Snapchat connections based on frequency of Snaps, your Snapscore simply reflects total Snaps exchanged with all friends.
Making your best friends list private does not affect your Snapscore. You and friends can still increase your Snapscores, even if the list of best friends is now hidden.
Conclusion
Snapchat’s best friends feature automatically shows who you interact with most based on snap volume. By default, this list is public for all your connections to see.
If you want to hide your best friends’ activity for privacy or to avoid unwanted interactions, you can easily make the list private in Snapchat’s settings.
This prevents other users from seeing your best friends while allowing you to still access the list. Making your best friends private can give you more control over your Snapchat presence and communications.