If you notice that you only have 5 best friends showing up on your Snapchat, it’s because Snapchat limits the number of best friends you can have to 5. This is by design and is normal behavior on Snapchat. Here’s a quick 60 word summary answering why you only have 5 best friends on Snapchat: Snapchat intentionally limits the number of best friends any user can have to 5 at a time. It does this to encourage users to interact with their closest friends often, while also giving opportunities for other friendships to enter the best friends list through frequent Snapping.
What are Snapchat Best Friends?
On Snapchat, your best friends are the people you interact with the most on the app. Specifically, Snapchat algorithmically determines your best friends based on who you have snapped with the most over the past 7 days.
Snapchat keeps track of your snap sending and receiving activity with each friend, and ranks your friends accordingly. The 5 friends you have sent snaps to and received snaps from the most over the past week get shown as your “Best Friends” in the Friends screen on the app.
So in simple terms, your Snapchat best friends are your 5 top friends that you snap with the most frequently.
Why is the Best Friends Limit 5?
Snapchat pioneered the concept of best friends on social media when they introduced it back in 2015. And right from the start, they limited the number to 5 best friends only.
According to Snapchat, here are some of the reasons why they only allow up to 5 best friends:
- Encourages users to keep snapping their closest friends frequently to keep them as a best friend.
- Gives opportunities for other friendships to enter the top 5 through frequent snaps.
- Keeps the list exclusive and more meaningful by limiting it to just 5 people.
- Motivates users to send more snaps daily to maintain their best friend status.
- Lets users focus on nurturing closer friendships with a smaller circle.
Essentially, Snapchat wants to incentivize users to keep actively snapping with their best friends. So they created an element of exclusivity and prestige with the 5 friends limit.
How Often Does the Best Friends List Update?
Snapchat refreshes its Best Friends algorithm daily at midnight UTC. So your best friends list updates once a day after Snapchat recalculates your snapping activity over the past 7 days.
This means your Best Friends list is dynamic and can change from day to day based on your interactions. If someone drops off from your top 5, they will be replaced by the next friend you snap the most with.
The one exception is your #1 Best Friend, which only changes if your current #1 Best Friend gets replaced organically by someone else at the #1 position based on your snapping activity.
Does Sending Chats Count Towards Best Friends?
No, only picture and video snaps that you send back and forth are counted by Snapchat’s algorithm to determine Best Friends.
So chats, audio notes, video and voice calls, stories, and other interactions don’t affect your Best Friends listing. It’s all about your one-on-one snapping activity.
Strategies to Become Someone’s Best Friend
If you want to become best friends with someone on Snapchat, here are some tips:
- Snap them daily, the more the better.
- Make sure to frequently reply to their snaps too, not just send snaps.
- Aim to be their top snapped contact for 7 days straight.
- Send personalized snaps instead of mass snaps.
- Prioritize snapping them over other friends.
- Don’t go overboard as that could backfire.
Essentially, you need to organically make them one of your top snapped contacts, and ensure you are one of theirs too. It may take a bit of time, but consistently snapping back and forth is key.
Why Don’t I Have 5 Best Friends Showing?
If you have fewer than 5 best friends appearing in your Friends screen, it likely means:
- You haven’t actively snapped with at least 5 people frequently over the past week.
- You have best friends, but they have not enabled the setting to allow their best friends to be visible to you.
- You don’t snap enough people often throughout the week.
To fix this, focus on more actively snapping your top friends throughout the week. Also, some of your best friends may have disabled the setting to show their own best friends publicly, which is done in Profile settings.
Can I Choose Who I Want As Best Friends?
No, Snapchat’s algorithm automatically determines your best friends based on your snapping activity. There is no setting to manually select or pin who you want as your best friends.
You can’t game the system or cheat to pick your best friends. The only way is to organically snap certain people more frequently over a period of time for them to qualify.
Conclusion
To recap, Snapchat intentionally limits best friends to 5 in order to encourage more engagement between close friends on the app. The best friends system is based on your snap activity over 7 days, so you need to keep actively snapping your closest friends for them to remain at the top.
While you can’t directly control or choose your best friends, you can influence it by focusing your snaps on the select people you want to see in your top 5. Be strategic with your snapping activity and you’ll be able to cultivate the Best Friends list you want.