If you want to remove someone from your Snapchat best friends list without unfriending or unadding them completely, there are a couple of easy ways to do it. The main method is to temporarily stop viewing their stories and chatting with them, which will lower your Snapchat score with that friend over time. You can also add new friends and interact with them more to push the person you want to remove further down your best friends list.
Understanding Snapchat Best Friends
Snapchat automatically tracks your interactions with friends and ranks your best friends based on your Snapchat score with each person. Your Snapchat score with a friend is increased by viewing their snaps and stories, sending them chats, reacting to their content, etc. The more you interact with someone, the higher your Snapchat score will be with them, pushing them up your best friends list.
Snapchat best friends are ranked based on your scores with each friend over the past week. So your rankings aren’t permanent and can change frequently as you interact with different people. If you want someone to drop off your best friends list, you need to stop viewing their snaps and interacting with them regularly.
Temporarily Reduce Interactions
The most straightforward way to remove a friend from your besties is to simply interact with them less for about a week. Here are some tips:
- Avoid viewing their stories or opening their snaps. If you accidentally open one, exit right away.
- Don’t send them any snaps or chats.
- Don’t react to or comment on their stories.
- Mute their stories for a week so you aren’t even tempted to watch.
Basically, cut off all habitual communications and interactions you usually have with that friend on Snapchat. Within a few days, you should see their Snapchat score start to decrease and their best friend ranking drop.
Interact with Others More
Another strategy is to start interacting with other friends more. Snapchat ranks best friends according to your comparative scores. So if you boost your scores with other friends, it will lower the relative score with the person you want to remove.
To do this:
- Chat and snap other friends more frequently.
- Comment on more of their stories.
- React to their content with emojis.
- View their stories right when they post.
- Send them snap streaks daily.
You don’t have to completely ignore the person you’re trying to remove. Just shift more of your Snapchat time and energy to engaging with different friends instead. The algorithm will pick up on this change in behavior.
Add New Friends
Adding new Snapchat friends and interacting with them can also help move an old friend down your list quickly. Snapchat gives newer friendships a boost in your rankings. So adding friends and communicating with them daily can drop your score with the person you want to remove.
Ways to find and add new Snapchat friends include:
- Searching for people you know or celebrities to add.
- Joining Snapchat groups and adding members.
- Using Snapchat’s “Quick Add” section to find friends.
- Posting your Snapchat QR code or username elsewhere to get friend requests.
- Using Snapchat’s “Add Nearby” feature to find local users.
Even adding just a couple new active Snapchat friends can help displace the rankings of old friends you want to remove from your best friends list.
Change Your Behavior Gradual
When trying to remove someone from your top besties, it’s important not to change your behavior too drastically or suddenly. If you go from chatting with someone every day to ghosting them completely, they will likely notice. This can hurt their feelings or damage your relationship.
Instead, gradually reduce interactions over a week or two. Stop reacting to their stories, then view their stories less, then talk to them less. They are less likely to realize anything is different if you phase the changes in slowly.
You can also gradually increase interactions with other friends rather than drastically shifting all your energy to new people.
Re-Engage Later If You Want
Removing a friend from your Snapchat besties list doesn’t have to be permanent. Once they have dropped down the rankings, you can start interacting with them again when you want. Just be mindful that increased communication will bump their best friend score back up over time.
But occasionally engaging with them again will probably not immediately restore them to the top spot, especially if you have dozens of other active friendships. So don’t stress too much about the occasional chat or reacting to their story once in a while after giving them a best friend break.
Talk to Them If Needed
If the person you want to temporarily remove from your besties is a close friend in real life, consider explaining what you are doing. Let them know that you are just trying to manage your Snapchat friend list and want to interact with other friends more.
Assure them it’s not personal and you still want to remain actual friends and stay in touch. This prevents hurt feelings and preserves your friendship outside of Snapchat. The change is only within the app and won’t affect your real relationship.
What If They Notice?
There’s a chance your friend may notice they have dropped down your best friends list and ask you about it. If this happens, you can explain you are just trying to improve your Snapchat experience by diversifying interactions.
Emphasize it’s not about them specifically. You are just trying to strengthen connections with other friends you have neglected. Let them know you still care about them and your real life friendship with them hasn’t changed.
Most people understand managing digital relationships on apps can be complicated. As long as you reassure them your actual friendship is fine, they will likely get over no longer being your Snapchat BFF.
Avoid Blocking or Unadding
Unless you want to fully end a Snapchat friendship, avoid outright blocking or unadding someone just to remove them as a best friend. Doing this will notify them they are no longer friends with you at all, which can provoke hurt feelings.
Instead, use the subtle approaches suggested above. These allow you to create distance and rebalance Snapchat friendships without ending them completely. The person is simply moved down your best friends algorithm ranking, not removed as a friend.
Use Snapchat’s Custom Friend Lists
For more control over your Snapchat social experience, use the app’s Custom Friend Lists feature. This lets you organize friends into different groups:
- Close Friends – for your true besties.
- Acquaintances – for casual friends or friends you interact with less.
- Family
- Coworkers
- Close Friends IRL But Not on Snapchat – for friends you don’t need to interact with much on the app.
With Custom Lists, you can easily filter whose stories you see and target snaps and chats to just certain groups. This gives you more flexibility to manage your Snapchat friendships and enables more customization of the app.
So if you only want your closest friends in your Main Friends List story feed, the Custom Lists feature lets you achieve this without unfriending or unadding people.
Conclusion
Removing a friend from your Snapchat best friends list is possible without fully unfriending them. Simply reduce your interactions and increase engagements with others for a week or two. This painlessly displaces that person’s ranking due to Snapchat’s algorithm.
Just be gradual, communicative, and considerate so feelings aren’t hurt. With the right approach, you can refresh your friend list without losing real friendships both on and off Snapchat.