The order of your friends list on Snapchat is determined by your interactions with your friends on the app. Those you interact with the most will appear at the top of your list, while those you interact with less will appear lower down. Snapchat’s algorithm looks at factors like how often you view someone’s story, send chats and snaps back and forth, react to their content, and more to determine the ordering.
How the Snapchat Friends List Order Works
Snapchat does not display your friends in alphabetical order or chronological order based on when you added them. Instead, it uses an algorithm that analyzes your snap activity to determine which friends to place at the top of your list.
According to Snapchat, the friends list order is based on your interactions over the past two months. So if you frequently view, chat with, and snap certain friends, they will move to the top of your list. Friends you interact with less will get pushed down in the list.
Some key factors that influence your friends list order include:
- How often you view someone’s story
- How often you chat or snap back and forth
- How quickly you respond to someone’s snaps and chats
- How often you react to someone’s content with emojis or comments
- How often you interact within group chats
- How often you replay someone’s snaps
The more frequently and recently you’ve interacted with a friend in these ways, the higher up in your list they will appear. Friends who you haven’t viewed, snapped, or chatted with as much lately will gradually move down the list.
Why Snapchat Orders Your Friends List This Way
There are a few key reasons why Snapchat orders your friends list based on your interactions rather than alphabetically or chronologically:
- Relevance – The friends you interact with most are likely the ones you care about seeing toward the top of your feed. Ranking based on interactions puts your closest friends first.
- Convenience – Having your frequent contacts at the top makes it easy to quickly find and message those you snap with often.
- Engagement – Promoting friends you actively engage with helps keep you invested in using Snapchat by making your favories most accessible.
Overall, the goal is to display the friends that matter most to you higher up where they are easy to access. This creates a better experience for users than just showing friends in random order.
How to Move Friends Up in Your Snapchat List
If you want certain friends to appear higher in your Snapchat friends list, there are some ways you can try to boost their ranking:
- View their Stories more frequently – Watching someone’s Story multiple times in a row helps raise their score.
- Send them Snaps directly – Regularly sending Snaps back and forth will signal you are close friends.
- Chat with them often – Frequently messaging helps boost your interactions.
- Respond quickly when they Snap you – Fast replies imply you want to engage.
- React to their content – Commenting and reacting tells Snapchat you care.
- Interact in Group Chats together – Group activities can help boost scores.
- Replay their Snaps – Replays signify meaningful content.
The more you can do these types of activities with certain friends, the more likely Snapchat will view you as close friends and rank them higher over time. Be consistent with your interactions and it can take a couple weeks for your list order to reflect the changes.
Why Some Friends Stay at the Top
You may notice that some friends tend to stick at the top of your Snapchat list for long periods, while others move up and down more frequently. There are a few reasons why some friends maintain top spots:
- You have a Snapstreak with them – Snapstreaks indicate highly engaged friends.
- They are very active Snapchat users – Frequent Snappers tend to get priority.
- They post Stories very often – Posting regularly keeps them in front of you.
- You have a tight-knit friend group – Group chats boost all members.
- You’ve been friends for years – Long history builds priority.
In general, the more consistently and frequently you interact with certain friends over longer periods of time, the more locked in their positions at the top will be. Newer friends or those you interact with less often will move around more freely.
Why Some Friends Move Down in Your List
On the other hand, you may find some friends gradually shift down your list over time. Some reasons friends can lose priority include:
- You’ve stopped viewing their Stories
- Your chat/Snap frequency has declined
- You’ve stopped reacting to their content
- You no longer have a Snapstreak
- The friend isn’t very active on Snapchat anymore
- Your real-life interactions have lessened
Essentially, if you stop engaging with a friend frequently on Snapchat, their relevance score for your social graph goes down. And without ongoing active interactions, they’ll start to sink in your friends list.
How to Regain Lost Friends on Snapchat
If you notice a formerly close friend has moved down your list more than you’d like, you can take steps to regain them:
- Start reacting to their Stories again
- Send them Snaps to restart your thread
- Initiate chats to re-engage
- Comment on their public content
- Watch their Stories multiple times in a row
- Reply quickly when they do send you Snaps
Ramping up your interactions again can help re-establish your connection on Snapchat. It may take a couple weeks for their position to improve, but with consistent engagement they should move back up.
Limits to Controlling Friends List Order
While you have some ability to influence your friends list order, there are certain limits:
- Can’t manually reorder – You can’t drag and drop friends to customize rankings.
- Takes time to change – Don’t expect overnight shifts in position.
- Can’t force positions – Friends you barely interact with won’t jump to the top.
- Activity levels matter – Both you and your friends need to be engaged.
- Algorithms have biases – Snapchat’s code determines impact of behaviors.
Ultimately, Snapchat’s algorithms make the final determination based on social graphs and activity patterns. But consistent engagement with select friends should improve their odds over time.
Snapchat Friend List Order on Business Accounts
Snapchat’s friend list ordering works a bit differently on business accounts compared to personal accounts:
- Based on interactions and post views
- Followers tend to get priority over friends
- Followers who turn on notifications get boosted
- Evens out activity from mass communications
So while personal engagement still matters, business accounts tend to prioritize followers who actively consume and react to branded content.
Using List Order to Understand Your Friendships
Beyond finding friends quickly, your Snapchat list order can provide insight into the health of your relationships:
- Top friends are your closest social circle
- Dropping friends may signal fading friendships
- Watch who exits after life changes like moving away
- See who sticks around through ups and downs
Monitoring changes over time can help you recognize which friendships continue thriving and which may need more nurturing to retain closeness.
Conclusion
Snapchat’s friends list order is determined by your interactions with each friend over the past few months. Those you engage with the most get moved to the top, while those you interact with less sink down the list. Focusing on frequent viewing, snapping, chatting, and reacting can help boost favored friends up in your list. But remember it takes consistent engagement for rankings to shift, and the algorithm ultimately decides.