Snapchat Planets Explained: Order & Meanings (2026)

By Priya Mehta | Social Media Writer & Snapchat Plus User Since 2022
Published: February 2026 | Last Updated: April 7, 2026
Reading Time: 10 minutes

About the Author: Priya Mehta is a social media writer who covers platform features, digital culture, and app updates for Gen Z and millennial audiences. She has used Snapchat Plus continuously since its launch in 2022 and has personally navigated the Friend Solar System across multiple friend groups. The planet descriptions, badge observations, and troubleshooting steps in this guide come from direct, ongoing use of the feature — not from secondhand sources.

Table of Contents

1. What Are Snapchat Planets?
2. How the Friend Solar System Actually Works
3. Snapchat Planets in Order — All 8 Explained
4. Quick Reference Table
5. How to See Your Snapchat Planets
6. The Best Friends Badge vs The Friends Badge
7. How Rankings Are Calculated
8. How to Improve Your Planet Ranking
9. Common Questions People Actually Have
10. Troubleshooting — When Planets Won’t Show

What Are Snapchat Planets?

Snapchat Planets — officially called the Friend Solar System — is a feature available to Snapchat Plus subscribers. It visualizes a user’s top eight closest friends as planets orbiting the user as the Sun. The closer a planet sits to the Sun, the more that person interacts with the user.

The concept maps directly onto the real solar system. Mercury sits closest to the Sun and represents the number one best friend. Neptune sits furthest away and represents the eighth. The order follows actual planetary sequence, which makes it easy to remember once learned.

The feature launched as part of Snapchat Plus in July 2022. As of 2026, it remains one of the most talked-about reasons people upgrade from the free version.

Also on this site: For a broader overview of how Snapchat Planets fit into the Snapchat Plus subscription, see the companion Snapchat Planets guide.

One Thing Most Guides Get Wrong

One of the most common misconceptions about Snapchat Planets is that both users need Snapchat Plus to see the planets. This is not accurate.

Only the person checking needs an active Snapchat Plus subscription. When a subscriber opens a friend’s profile, the planet system reflects that subscriber’s own interaction data — regardless of whether the friend has Snapchat Plus or not. The friend’s subscription status does not affect what the subscriber sees.

This matters practically. If someone has Snapchat Plus and their friend does not, the subscriber can still see which planet they represent in their friend’s ranking.

How the Friend Solar System Actually Works

The system works by placing the user at the center — as the Sun — and assigning each of their top eight most-interacted friends a planet position. The algorithm continuously analyzes interaction patterns and updates positions over time.

Interaction types that affect ranking include:

• Direct snaps sent and received
• Chat messages in one-on-one conversations
• Story views and replies
• Snap streak maintenance
• Reactions to stories

Direct snaps carry the most weight. Two-way conversations rank higher than one-sided interactions. Simply viewing someone’s story without replying contributes minimally to their ranking position.

Rankings are not mutual. This is something that catches a lot of people off guard. Someone might appear as Mercury in one person’s solar system while that same person appears as Saturn in theirs. This happens because each person’s solar system reflects their own individual interaction patterns — not a shared calculation. The person considered a number one best friend may have dozens of people they snap more frequently.

Rankings update dynamically, not on a fixed schedule. Increased engagement with a specific friend can shift their position upward within days. Reduced interaction naturally causes positions to drift outward as other friendships move up.

Snapchat Planets in Order — All 8 Explained

1. Mercury — Best Friend

Mercury appears as a pink sphere surrounded by red hearts. Reaching Mercury means this person receives more snaps, messages, and engagement than anyone else on the platform. People holding Mercury status typically exchange multiple snaps daily and respond quickly to each other’s messages.

Maintaining Mercury requires consistent, genuine interaction over weeks — not a temporary burst of activity. The algorithm recognizes sustained engagement patterns rather than short-term spikes.

2. Venus — Best Friend

Venus displays as a light brown or beige sphere with pink, yellow, and blue hearts. The second position reflects a close, high-engagement friendship just below the number one spot. Venus friends communicate regularly and participate actively in each other’s content.

3. Earth — Best Friend

Earth appears as a blue and green sphere with a moon and red hearts. The third position represents a solid, consistent friendship with regular communication. Earth-level friends often maintain ongoing snap streaks and check in on each other’s stories frequently.

4. Mars — Best Friend

Mars shows as a red sphere with purple and blue hearts. The fourth position reflects an active friendship with several interactions throughout the week. Mars friends stay connected without requiring daily conversation to maintain their position.

5. Jupiter — Best Friend

Jupiter appears as an orange-peach sphere surrounded by colored stars. As the fifth position, Jupiter still represents a meaningful friendship with regular but slightly less frequent interaction. These connections often involve shared interests and periodic check-ins.

6. Saturn — Best Friend

Saturn displays as a golden sphere with a ring and scattered stars. The sixth position indicates a friendship maintained through periodic snaps and occasional conversations. Saturn-level connections often involve shared group chats or mutual friend circles rather than intensive one-on-one communication.

7. Uranus — Best Friend

Uranus appears as a green sphere with no hearts — the minimalist design signals a more casual interaction pattern. The seventh position reflects connections maintained through weekly or less frequent snaps. These friendships may involve specific shared contexts rather than daily communication.

8. Neptune — Best Friend

Neptune shows as a blue sphere as the outermost position in the Friend Solar System. The eighth spot represents the least-active of the top eight connections. While interaction levels are lower than other positions, Neptune friends still make the cut above everyone else — they are among the eight people interacted with most frequently, which for active Snapchat users is still meaningful.

Quick Reference Table {#quick-reference}

Visual descriptions sourced from direct observation of the feature on iOS as of March 2026.

Planet	Position	Visual	Interaction Level
Mercury	#1 Best Friend	Pink sphere, red hearts	Multiple times daily
Venus	#2 Best Friend	Brown sphere, colorful hearts	Daily
Earth	#3 Best Friend	Blue-green sphere, moon	Daily to several times weekly
Mars	#4 Best Friend	Red sphere, purple-blue hearts	Several times weekly
Jupiter	#5 Best Friend	Orange sphere, colored stars	Multiple times weekly
Saturn	#6 Best Friend	Gold sphere, ring and stars	Weekly
Uranus	#7 Best Friend	Green sphere, minimal design	Weekly to bi-weekly
Neptune	#8 Best Friend	Blue sphere	Bi-weekly or less

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How to See Your Snapchat Planets

Requirements:

• An active Snapchat Plus subscription ($3.99/month in the US as of April 2026 — always verify current pricing in the app)
• The Friend Solar System feature enabled in Snapchat Plus settings
• An updated version of the Snapchat app

Step-by-step:

1. Open Snapchat and tap the Bitmoji icon in the top-left corner to open the profile page
2. Tap the Snapchat Plus banner and confirm the Friend Solar System toggle is turned on
3. Return to the main chat screen and open a friend’s chat
4. Tap their name or Bitmoji at the top to open their profile
5. Look for the Best Friends badge or Friends badge — a gold-outlined circular badge below their display name
6. Tap the badge to see the planet animation revealing which position is held in their solar system

The planet and a brief animation appear, showing which celestial body represents the ranking in that specific friend’s Friend Solar System.

The Best Friends Badge vs The Friends Badge

Two different badge types appear on friend profiles, and they carry different meanings:

Best Friends Badge (gold ring with star icon): This badge appears when both users are in each other’s top eight friends. Both people snap and chat with each other frequently enough to appear on one another’s list simultaneously. This is the badge most people hope to see.

Friends Badge (without the gold ring): This badge appears when the profile owner considers the viewer one of their top eight, but the viewer does not have that person in their own top eight. It is a one-way friendship at the top-eight level — the other person interacts more with them than they interact back.

Neither badge is visible to free Snapchat users. Only Snapchat Plus subscribers see these badges and can access the planet reveal.

Related: Snapchat is not the only platform experimenting with visual friendship expression. If emoji customization and social expression tools interest you, the complete guide to Emoji Mix covers another popular way Gen Z users personalize their digital interactions.

How Rankings Are Calculated

Snapchat has not published the exact weighting of its friendship ranking algorithm. Based on the feature’s behavior and Snapchat’s own support documentation, the system weighs the following factors:

Highest impact:

• Direct snaps sent and received (one-on-one, not group snaps)
• Two-way chat conversations in private messages

Moderate impact:

• Story replies and reactions
• Snap streak maintenance — particularly streaks maintained for six months or more

Lower impact:

• Story views without replies
• Group snap participation

Profile views do not affect rankings. Viewing someone’s profile repeatedly does not change their position in the solar system.

The key principle is mutual, direct engagement. A friendship where both parties send snaps to each other and reply to messages consistently will rank higher than one where only one person initiates contact regularly.

Also useful: If WhatsApp is part of the daily messaging routine alongside Snapchat, the complete WhatsApp Web guide for 2026 covers how to use WhatsApp across devices — a natural companion read for anyone managing multiple messaging apps.

How to Improve Your Planet Ranking

Improving a ranking requires genuine, sustained interaction rather than short bursts of activity.

What actually moves the needle:

Send direct snaps rather than group snaps. The algorithm treats one-on-one snaps as a stronger signal than the same content sent to multiple people simultaneously. A personalized snap sent directly to one person carries more weight than a general snap distributed to a list.

Reply quickly and consistently. Response time and reply rate contribute to how the algorithm evaluates the friendship. Leaving snaps unopened for days or responding sporadically reduces the interaction quality signal.

Maintain snap streaks over extended periods. Streaks maintained for months rather than days create a stronger long-term interaction signal. An ongoing streak signals consistent daily engagement.

Engage with their stories actively. Replying to stories and reacting to content adds interaction data points beyond direct snaps. Even brief reactions register as engagement.

Balance the interaction. If one person consistently initiates contact while the other rarely responds, the algorithm reads this as a weaker connection. Two-way engagement consistently produces better rankings than one-sided effort.

What does not affect rankings:

• Viewing a friend’s profile repeatedly
• Group chat participation
• Adding someone as a contact or searching for their profile

Common Questions People Actually Have

Does my friend need Snapchat Plus for me to see their planet?

No. Only the person checking needs Snapchat Plus. The planet generated on a friend’s profile reflects the subscriber’s own interaction data. The friend’s subscription status has no bearing on whether a planet appears for the subscriber.

Can my friend see which planet they are in my solar system?

If the friend also has Snapchat Plus, they can check by opening the subscriber’s profile and tapping the badge. They will see their own planet position. They cannot see anyone else’s position in the subscriber’s solar system — only their own.

Why am I Mercury to someone but they are Saturn to me?

This happens because rankings are not mutual. Each person’s solar system is calculated independently based on their individual interaction patterns. Someone who snaps one person constantly may have dozens of people they snap more — making the first person’s Mercury that person’s Saturn.

Do rankings reset?

No. Rankings shift continuously based on interaction patterns but do not reset on a schedule. Positions drift as engagement levels change between friends.

Can I turn the feature off?

Yes. Go to profile settings, tap Snapchat Plus, and toggle the Friend Solar System off. This hides the planets badges from your profile without canceling the subscription or affecting other Plus features.

What happens if I have fewer than 8 close friends on Snapchat?

The system displays only the planets that correspond to actual active friendships. If someone only has five consistent Snapchat connections, the visualization shows up to five planets rather than forcing all eight positions to fill.

Explore more social app features: If creative, shareable social media tools are appealing, the Instafest app guide explains another popular feature that lets users generate and share personalized music festival lineups — a similar blend of personalization and social sharing that Snapchat Planets taps into.

Troubleshooting — When Planets Won’t Show

Planets not appearing at all:

• Verify the Snapchat Plus subscription is active (check in Profile → Snapchat Plus)
• Confirm the Friend Solar System toggle is turned on in Snapchat Plus settings
• Update the Snapchat app to the latest version through the App Store or Google Play
• Check that the friend’s profile shows a gold badge — if no badge appears, they may not be in the top eight

Badge appears but tapping it shows nothing:

• Force-close the app and reopen it
• Clear the app cache (Android: Settings → Apps → Snapchat → Clear Cache; iOS: Profile → Settings → Account Actions → Clear Cache)
• Log out and log back in to the account

Planet position seems wrong:

• Rankings reflect recent interaction patterns, typically the past several weeks rather than long-term friendship history
• A position that feels surprising usually reflects a genuine shift in recent interaction frequency rather than a technical error
• Rankings update gradually rather than instantly — a recent spike in interaction may take several days to register as a position change

Lost a planet position suddenly:

• The most common cause is the Snapchat Plus subscription lapsing
• A friend dropping out of the top eight through reduced interaction is the second most common cause
• App updates occasionally require the Feature Solar System toggle to be re-enabled manually

Information in this guide is accurate as of April 2026 based on direct use of Snapchat Plus on iOS. Snapchat updates its platform regularly — confirm current pricing and feature availability in the app. Subscription pricing is $3.99/month in the US as of this writing but may vary by region.

Priya Mehta is a social media writer covering platform features and digital culture for Gen Z and millennial audiences. She has maintained an active Snapchat Plus subscription since the feature launched in July 2022 and uses the Friend Solar System regularly across multiple friend groups. She writes about social media tools with a focus on explaining how features actually work in practice rather than how they are described in marketing copy.