You tapped the gold badge on your best friend’s profile expecting Mercury. You got Saturn. Sixth out of eight. Here’s the complete breakdown of every planet, the ranking algorithm behind them, and how to move closer to the sun.
Planets, no ties
Ranking refresh
Original experiment
Questions answered
Snapchat Planets are a Snapchat+ exclusive feature officially called the Friend Solar System. You sit at the center as the sun. Your eight closest friends orbit around you as planets, ordered exactly like the real solar system, ranked entirely by how much you interact. Simple concept. Surprisingly emotional results.
Snapchat Planets are a visual ranking system exclusive to Snapchat+ subscribers. The feature, officially called the Friend Solar System, places you at the center of a solar system like the sun and assigns each of your top eight friends a planet based on your interaction frequency.
Mercury goes to the friend you snap and chat with the most. Neptune goes to the eighth. Every planet in between follows the same order as our actual solar system.
What makes it different from a regular Best Friends list: instead of showing names in a plain text ranking, Snapchat wraps each friend’s Bitmoji onto a colorful, animated planet complete with hearts, stars, and rings that visually distinguish each tier.
Free users can’t see or access planets at all.
Even after subscribing, you must manually enable the Friend Solar System in Snapchat+ settings.
Only you can see your own solar system. Friends won’t know which planet they are unless they check from their side.
Rankings shift as interactions change. Today’s Mercury could be next month’s Jupiter.
The Snapchat Planets order mirrors the real solar system. Here’s the complete list at a glance.
| Position | Planet | Meaning | Signature Look |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Mercury | Your closest Snapchat friend | Bright red + four red hearts |
| #2 | Venus | Your second closest friend | Beige + multicolour hearts |
| #3 | Earth | Your third closest friend | Blue & green + a tiny moon |
| #4 | Mars | Your fourth closest friend | Red-orange + blue/purple hearts |
| #5 | Jupiter | Your fifth closest friend | Orange-brown stripes, no hearts |
| #6 | Saturn | Your sixth closest friend | Golden-yellow with rings |
| #7 | Uranus | Your seventh closest friend | Green-teal + faint yellow stars |
| #8 | Neptune | Your eighth closest friend | Deep blue with a subtle glow |
Every Snapchat Planet has a unique visual design and carries a slightly different friendship energy. Here’s what each one looks like and what it says about where you stand.
A small, bright red planet surrounded by four red hearts, twinkling stars, and your friend’s Bitmoji sitting on top.
Mercury is the closest orbit. If you’re someone’s Mercury, you are the person they interact with the most on Snapchat: more snaps, more chats, and more replies than anyone else on their list. In most cases, Mercury friendships are mutual — you’re likely their Mercury, and they’re likely yours.
From what we’ve observed, Mercury pairs typically share streaks above 150 days and exchange snaps daily. This isn’t casual. Mercury means consistent, high-volume interaction.
A light beige planet with multicoloured hearts — pink, blue, yellow, and purple — floating around it with subtle sparkles.
Venus is your second closest friend. The interaction frequency sits just below Mercury, but the connection often runs deeper. Where Mercury is sometimes built on sheer volume (rapid-fire snaps back and forth), Venus friendships tend to involve longer chats and more meaningful exchanges.
Think of Venus as the friend you call when something actually happens — not just the person you send streaks to.
A blue-and-green planet with red hearts, small stars, and a tiny moon orbiting nearby.
Earth is the third position, and it’s what I’d call the “low-maintenance best friend” slot. You don’t snap each other obsessively. You don’t panic when the streak timer appears. But when you do connect, it’s natural and easy.
Earth friendships typically involve regular story replies, mid-week chats, and the kind of interaction that doesn’t need daily effort to stay strong.
A red-orange planet with blue and purple hearts scattered around it.
Mars is your fourth closest friend, and it’s where things start getting lighter. This is the meme friend. The person you send funny screenshots to. The one who gets the random 2 AM snaps that make no sense.
The interaction is active, but the conversations are shorter and more playful than the inner three planets. Mars friendships are fun, familiar, and low-pressure.
A large orange-brown planet with dark stripes. No hearts — just stars and a sense of quiet distance.
Jupiter sits at the halfway point. You talk to this friend maybe once or twice a week. You’ll reply to their stories occasionally. You might send a snap when something reminds you of them. The bond is real, but it doesn’t demand constant attention.
The absence of hearts in Jupiter’s design isn’t accidental. It visually signals a shift from intimate connection to comfortable familiarity.
A yellow-golden planet with distinctive rings, surrounded by stars.
Here’s where it stings. Saturn is the sixth position, and it usually represents a once-closer friendship. You don’t end up at Saturn randomly — you drift here from somewhere warmer.
Maybe you used to be their Venus. Maybe life got busy. Either way, the chats have slowed, the streaks have broken, and the algorithm noticed before you did.
A small green-teal planet with faint yellow stars and a tiny Bitmoji.
Uranus is seventh. Interactions are minimal. You snap occasionally, maybe reply to a story once a week. The friendship still exists on paper, but the digital signal is weak.
This is the start of the “outer planets” — quiet connections, not gone.
A deep blue planet with a subtle glow and a lone, tiny Bitmoji in the distance.
Neptune is the eighth and final position. Communication is rare. Weeks or even months might pass between interactions.
But here’s something worth remembering: you’re still in their top eight. Out of everyone on their Snapchat, you still made the cut. Neptune isn’t rejection. It’s distance.
The Friend Solar System is a straightforward feature once you understand the mechanics. Here’s the full picture.
When you visit a friend’s profile, you’ll see a badge near their name — either Best Friends or Friends — outlined with a gold ring. Tapping that badge reveals which planet you are in their solar system.
That’s it. But the badge type matters just as much as the planet.
Rankings don’t update in real time. Based on tracking daily position changes across multiple accounts, the recalculation window appears to be every 24 to 72 hours.
Snapping someone 100 times today won’t immediately move you to Mercury. If your planet seems “stuck,” give it a day or two before assuming something is broken.
This distinction catches a lot of people off guard. You can be someone’s Mercury without them being anywhere in your top eight. The system measures each person’s interactions independently.
| Badge | What It Means | Mutual? |
|---|---|---|
| Best Friends (gold ring) | You’re both in each other’s top 8 | Yes — the ranking goes both ways |
| Friends (gold ring) | You’re in their top 8, but they’re not in yours | No — one-way ranking |
Snapchat hasn’t published the exact formula behind planet rankings. But based on community testing, user reports, and our own 14-day experiment, here’s our best estimate of how the algorithm weights different interactions.
Strongest correlation with rank changes
Consistent chatters held rank even with fewer snaps
Breaking a streak caused drops within 48 hours
Minimal effect alone, but compounds other factors
Noticeable boost when combined with regular snapping
Subtle — faster replies correlated with slightly higher positions
Launch Snapchat and tap through to the profile of the friend you want to check.
Look near their name for a badge that says either “Best Friends” or “Friends,” outlined with a gold ring.
Snapchat reveals which planet you are in their personal solar system. That’s it.
If you don’t see a badge, one of three things is happening:
You don’t have an active Snapchat+ plan.
The Friend Solar System is disabled in your settings.
You’re not among that person’s eight closest friends.
The Friend Solar System is off by default, even for paying subscribers. Here’s how to switch it on — and off again.
Follow the same path and toggle it off. Disabling the feature doesn’t delete any data.
If you re-enable it later, your rankings will reflect your current interactions — not a frozen snapshot from when you turned it off.
These two features are connected, but they aren’t the same thing.
| Feature | Best Friends List | Snapchat Planets |
|---|---|---|
| Available to | All Snapchat users | Snapchat+ subscribers only |
| Format | Text-based list | Visual solar system with animated planets |
| Shows ranking? | Implied by list order | Explicit — each friend gets a named planet |
| Data source | Interaction frequency | Same interaction data |
| Number of friends | Up to 8 | Exactly 8 |
The planets don’t replace your Best Friends list. They visualise it. Same friends, same ranking logic, different presentation — think of it as the Best Friends list wearing a costume.
Want to move closer to someone’s sun? Here’s what actually works, based on the algorithm weight estimates from our testing.
Private snaps carry significantly more weight than group snaps. And consistency beats volume — five snaps per day for a week will move your ranking more than 35 snaps dumped in a single afternoon.
Streaks signal sustained daily engagement. Breaking a streak — especially a long one — can cause a 1–2 position drop within 48 hours. The algorithm treats streak breaks as a strong signal that interaction intensity has decreased.
Long, genuine conversations outweigh one-word replies. The algorithm appears to factor in both message frequency and back-and-forth depth. A 20-message conversation carries more weight than five separate “hey” messages.
Here’s a distinction most people miss: watching a story doesn’t count — or if it does, the impact is negligible. Replying to a story is what registers as meaningful interaction. Even a quick emoji reaction beats silent viewing.
Calls add a weighted interaction signal that most users overlook entirely. In our testing, adding even short voice calls (1–2 minutes) to an existing snap routine boosted ranking by one position within five days. The most underrated factor.
Response speed matters more than you’d think. Quick replies signal active engagement. Leaving messages unread for hours or days gradually weakens your interaction signal. You don’t need to reply instantly, but consistently slow responses cost you over time.
Honestly? No. Snapchat Planets requires a Snapchat+ subscription. There’s no workaround, no secret menu, and no hidden setting.
That said, here are your options.
Snapchat occasionally offers free trials of Snapchat+ that unlock all features, including Planets. Check inside the app — availability varies by region.
If a friend has Snapchat+, they can check which planet you are in their solar system and simply tell you.
Several apps and websites claim to show you planets without a subscription. They’re scams. They can steal your login credentials, and Snapchat can permanently ban your account for using them.
Snapchat+ is Snapchat’s premium subscription tier, typically priced around $3.99/month (pricing varies by region). A yearly plan is also available at a 20–30% discount. Beyond Planets, here’s what’s included.
The planets feature itself — your top 8 visualised as an orbiting solar system.
See where friends recently travelled on Snap Map.
Know how many times someone rewatched your Story.
Personalise your Snapchat app appearance on your home screen.
Keep your closest friend pinned to the top of your chat list.
Your replies appear first in a friend’s Story inbox.
If you’re deeply curious about your friendship rankings, the free trial is worth exploring. But long-term, the value comes from the full feature bundle — not Planets alone.
These three metrics confuse a lot of people because they all seem related to activity. They’re not measuring the same thing.
| Metric | What It Measures | Scope | Who Sees It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planets | Friendship closeness ranking | Your top 8 friends | Only you (Snapchat+) |
| Snap Score | Total app usage (all snaps sent + received) | All activity, all friends | Everyone |
| Streaks | Consecutive days snapping one specific friend | Per-friend basis | Both friends in the streak |
Your Snap Score reflects how much you use Snapchat overall. Your planet ranking reflects how much you interact with one specific person. You can have a Snap Score of 500,000 and still be someone’s Neptune if most of that activity happened with other friends.
Streaks feed into planet rankings — maintaining a daily streak increases your interaction signal with that friend. But a streak alone isn’t enough to guarantee a top position if someone else is chatting, calling, and replying to stories with that friend more than you are.
Four common failure modes, and exactly what to do about each one.
The most common reasons:
Rankings take 24–72 hours to recalculate. If you’ve recently changed your interaction pattern, the new ranking hasn’t processed yet. Wait a day and check again.
Clear your app cache: Settings → Clear Cache. If that doesn’t work, force close Snapchat, reopen it, and check again. Reinstalling is a last resort — it works, but you’ll need to log back in.
The moment your Snapchat+ subscription expires, planets vanish. They return immediately when you resubscribe, reflecting your current rankings — not your rankings from when the subscription lapsed.
This is where we go beyond what every other guide covers.
Blocking or removing a friend who occupies the #3 position doesn’t leave a gap. Everyone ranked below them shifts up by one. Your #4 becomes #3. Your #5 becomes #4. And a new friend — whoever is #9 in your interaction rankings — enters the solar system as Neptune.
If you re-add that friend later, they don’t return to their old position. Their ranking resets based on new interaction data from that point forward.
No. My AI is not a “friend” in the ranking system. No matter how often you chat with it, those interactions don’t factor into any planet calculations.
This is one of the most common misconceptions, and every competitor article ignores it entirely.
Barely. Group snaps contribute minimal weight toward individual friend rankings. If you want to move up in someone’s solar system, private one-on-one snaps and chats are what matter.
Relying on group activity alone won’t shift your planet position in any meaningful way.
When two friends have nearly identical interaction levels, their rankings can flip-flop between recalculation cycles. This is why you might see yourself alternate between Mars and Jupiter on someone’s profile across different days.
There are no “ties” in the display — each position shows one planet and one friend — but the underlying data can be close enough to produce swaps.
No. Each of the eight positions maps to exactly one planet and one friend. There are no shared orbits.
No other guide makes this comparison, but it’s essential context for understanding where Snapchat Planets sit in the broader social media landscape.
| Feature | Snapchat Planets | Instagram Close Friends | TikTok |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | Algorithm ranks your top 8 automatically | You manually curate a list | Algorithm prioritises content in your feed (no explicit ranking) |
| Visible to others? | Only to you | Only you see who’s on the list | Not visible at all |
| Based on | Interaction data (snaps, chats, calls) | Your manual choices | Watch time and engagement patterns |
| Number of tiers | 8 distinct planets | Binary — in or out | None (implicit, hidden) |
| Subscription required? | Yes (Snapchat+) | No | No |
Snapchat is the only major platform that explicitly shows you where you rank in someone’s friendship hierarchy based on algorithmic data. Instagram lets you choose your close friends manually. TikTok uses interaction data internally but never shows you a ranking. Snapchat turned quiet data into a visible feature — and that’s exactly why it generates so much emotional reaction.
Let’s be honest about what’s happening here. Snapchat Planets work because they tap into something deeply human: the desire to know where you stand.
Every time you check your planet, you’re engaging in a loop: you see your ranking → you feel validated (or anxious) → you snap more to maintain or improve your position → you check again.
Snapchat didn’t build this feature for fun. They built it to increase engagement. And it works. Being someone’s Mercury triggers a genuine emotional reward — you feel chosen, important, prioritised. But the flip side is equally real.
This isn’t just anecdotal. It’s rooted in loss aversion — a well-documented psychological principle that humans experience losses roughly twice as intensely as equivalent gains. Dropping from Venus to Saturn feels devastating. Rising from Saturn to Venus feels nice, but fades within hours.
Reddit and TikTok are full of stories that prove this. One user described discovering they’d dropped from Mercury to Jupiter after a two-week vacation without WiFi: “I know it’s just an app, but it genuinely hurt.” Another posted about a friendship ending after both friends obsessively compared rankings and argued over who was “trying harder.”
Ranking friendships numerically can create real stress, especially for teenagers still learning to navigate social dynamics. A dropped ranking with a close friend can feel genuinely personal, even though it’s just an algorithm measuring app activity.
Only the user can see their own solar system. Friends can’t see which planet they are unless they check from their side.
The system tracks interaction frequency only — not message content, snap content, or anything private.
If your teen shows signs of anxiety about rankings, turning it off takes 10 seconds.
A rumour that won’t die: somewhere on TikTok, Reddit, and X, people keep claiming Snapchat has a hidden 9th planet that unlocks through extremely high interaction levels.
Snapchat keeps its ranking algorithm private. When a system’s logic isn’t visible, speculation fills the gap. App glitches, unusual badge behaviour, and misinterpreted screenshots get mistaken for “proof.”
Snapchat continues updating the Friend Solar System with incremental improvements.
Transitions when rankings update now feel more polished.
Added inside the Friend Solar System view for more interactive responses.
Rolling out region by region with cleaner visuals.
A potential new reward system for consistent interaction with close friends. Limited testing, not widely available yet.
This section was last updated July 2026.
We ran a controlled test across three Snapchat+ accounts over two weeks to see which interactions actually move planet rankings.
Three accounts, each interacting with the same set of friends using different engagement patterns — one focused on snaps only, one on chats only, and one using a mix of snaps, chats, calls, and story replies.
| Finding | Detail |
|---|---|
| Private snaps moved rankings fastest | The snaps-only account saw the most rank improvements within the first 5 days |
| Breaking a 50-day streak caused a 2-position drop | The drop happened within 48 hours of the break |
| Story views without replies had zero measurable impact | Watching a story without replying didn’t move the needle at all |
| Adding voice calls boosted ranking by 1 position | The mixed-activity account gained an edge the others didn’t |
| Group snaps had negligible effect | Sending snaps to groups didn’t meaningfully affect individual friend rankings |
| Chat-only interactions held rank but didn’t climb | Chatting without snapping maintained position but rarely improved it |
Twenty of the most-searched questions about Snapchat Planets, answered directly.
Each planet represents your position in a friend’s Best Friends ranking. Mercury means you’re their #1 closest friend based on Snapchat interactions. Neptune means you’re their #8. The ranking is determined by how often you snap, chat, call, and engage with each other.
The order follows the real solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Mercury is closest (your #1 friend), and Neptune is farthest (#8).
You need Snapchat+ to use the feature. Visit a friend’s profile, look for a gold-ringed badge (Best Friends or Friends), and tap it. Snapchat will show you which planet you are in their personal solar system.
Yes. The feature works on both iOS and Android as long as you have an active Snapchat+ subscription and the Friend Solar System is toggled on in your settings.
No. Planets are exclusive to Snapchat+ subscribers. Free users cannot view or access the Friend Solar System feature.
Rankings appear to recalculate every 24 to 72 hours. Changes in your interaction patterns won’t reflect immediately — give it a day or two.
The green planet is Uranus, representing your #7 best friend. It appears as a green-teal planet with faint yellow stars.
The red planet is Mars, representing your #4 best friend. Mercury also appears reddish but is distinguished by its four red hearts and brighter design.
The blue planet is Neptune, your #8 friend — the farthest position in the solar system. Earth also has blue in its design but includes green continents and a moon.
Either you don’t have Snapchat+, the Friend Solar System is toggled off, the app needs updating, or you’re not in that person’s top eight friends.
You can’t manually choose your planet. However, you can influence your ranking by increasing interactions — sending more snaps, chatting more, maintaining streaks, and replying to stories.
The Best Friends badge means you’re both in each other’s top 8 (mutual). The Friends badge means you’re in their top 8, but they’re not in yours (one-way).
Minimally. Group snaps and group chats contribute very little to individual friend rankings. Private one-on-one interactions are what drive your position.
No. My AI is not part of the friend ranking system. Interactions with My AI don’t count toward any planet calculations.
Blocking removes that person from your solar system. Everyone ranked below them shifts up by one position, and a new friend enters at Neptune.
No. Each planet position maps to exactly one friend. There are no ties or shared orbits in the display.
Likely because another friend increased their interactions while yours stayed the same or decreased. Rankings are relative — your position depends not just on your activity, but on how it compares to everyone else’s.
They accurately reflect interaction data on the app — snap frequency, chat activity, calls, and story engagement. However, they don’t measure real-world friendship quality. A friend you see daily at school but never snap with will rank lower than someone you only know through streaks.
No. The system has always included exactly eight planets. The 9th planet rumour is a persistent internet myth with no verified evidence.
The feature is private — only the user sees their rankings, and no message content is exposed. However, ranking friendships can cause emotional stress for some teens. Parents should discuss what the rankings actually measure and show teens how to disable the feature if needed.
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