Snapchat Top 8 Friends: How Best Friends Lists Really Work in 2026

If you are trying to understand your Snapchat Top 8 Friends, the key point is simple: Snapchat’s Best Friends list is based on the people you Snap and Chat with the most, and you can have up to eight Best Friends at a time. Snapchat says the list is updated regularly, but it does not publish a formula that lets you manually control the exact order.

That means you do not need to follow supposed “ranking hacks,” send a certain number of Snaps, or stop using Snapchat for a fixed number of hours. Instead, it is better to understand what Snapchat officially says about Best Friends, what Snapchat+ adds, and which parts of the list you can actually control.

What Is the Snapchat Top 8 Friends List?

Snapchat calls the people you Snap and Chat with the most your Best Friends. You can have up to eight of them, and Snapchat says the list is updated regularly. Best Friends can appear prominently on the Send To screen and in the Chat section of your profile.

Your Best Friends list is private. Snapchat says other people may be able to see that they are among your Best Friends, but they cannot see your complete Best Friends list. So the “Top 8” is mainly a personal view of your strongest Snapchat interactions, not a public ranking that everyone can inspect.

How Snapchat Chooses Your Best Friends

Snapchat’s official explanation is deliberately simple: Best Friends are the friends you Snap and Chat with the most. Snapchat does not provide a public scoring system that tells users exactly how many points a Snap, Chat, Story view, video, or other action contributes.

• Snapping: Sending and receiving Snaps is part of the interaction Snapchat uses for Best Friends.
• Chatting: Snapchat also includes Chat activity when describing Best Friends.
• Recent interaction: Snapchat says Best Friends are updated regularly, so the list can change as your communication habits change.
• Overall communication: A person can move into or out of the list as your pattern of Snaps and Chats changes.

What Snapchat does not officially publish is a guaranteed ranking formula. So claims such as “video Snaps count more,” “one Snap equals a certain number of points,” or “send exactly X Snaps to reach #1” should not be presented as official Snapchat rules.

Can You Manually Change Your Top 8?

Not in the way you might expect. Snapchat does not provide a normal drag-and-drop control for manually arranging your Best Friends list. If you want the list to change, the practical approach is to naturally communicate with the people you actually want to stay close to on Snapchat.

You also cannot simply remove one person from Best Friends while keeping everything else unchanged. Snapchat’s help information says that you cannot manually remove someone from Best Friends; the list changes over time as your communication patterns change.

What You Can Do Instead

• Keep communicating normally with the friends you genuinely want near the top.
• Do not rely on artificial “boosting” tricks that Snapchat has not documented.
• Give the list time to update as your real Snapchat activity changes.
• Use Snapchat+ features when you want additional visibility or control over specific friendship features.

Snapchat+ and the Friend Solar System

If you have Snapchat+, the Friend Solar System gives you another way to understand your position in a friend’s Best Friends list. Snapchat says that a Snapchat+ subscriber can see a Best Friends badge with a gold ring on a Friendship Profile when the relevant friendship qualifies.

When you tap that badge, Snapchat shows which planet you are in that person’s Solar System. Each planet represents a different position in that person’s Best Friends list.

Snapchat Planet Order

This is why a planet can be useful as a quick position indicator, but it should not be treated as a permanent friendship score. If your position changes, it simply means your current place in that friend’s Best Friends list has changed.

How to Improve Your Snapchat Best Friends List Naturally

If someone important is missing from your Top 8, there is no official button that instantly moves them into the list. The sensible approach is to use Snapchat normally and communicate with that person more consistently if you genuinely want them to become one of your Best Friends.

1. Focus on Real Conversations

Use Snaps and Chats to stay in touch with the people who matter to you. The goal should be genuine communication rather than trying to manufacture a ranking result.

2. Let Your List Change Naturally

Your social activity is not static. You may talk more with classmates one week, coworkers another week, and close friends during the weekend. Because Snapchat updates Best Friends regularly, changes in your list are normal.

3. Do Not Chase an Exact Number

There is no official Snapchat instruction saying that a specific number of Snaps will move someone into a particular position. Avoid guides that promise a guaranteed #1 ranking after a fixed number of interactions.

What About Snapchat+ #1 Best Friend Pinning?

Snapchat+ includes a separate #1 Best Friend pinning feature. Snapchat says subscribers can privately pin one BFF as their #1 Best Friend to make staying in touch faster and easier.

To use it, Snapchat says you can press and hold a friend from Chat or the Send To screen and choose the option to pin them as your #1 Best Friend. Only you can see who you have pinned, and you can pin only one #1 Best Friend at a time.

Importantly, do not confuse this with the Friend Solar System. Pinning a #1 Best Friend is a Snapchat+ feature for privately choosing one person as your pinned BFF; the Solar System is a separate way of viewing your position in a friend’s Best Friends list.

Why Your Top 8 Friends Can Change

A changing Best Friends list does not automatically mean something is wrong with your account. Snapchat says Best Friends are updated regularly, so your list can reflect changes in who you communicate with most.

• You may simply be Snapping or Chatting with different people more often.
• A friend you used to communicate with frequently may no longer be part of your current activity pattern.
• Another friend may become more prominent because you are communicating with them more.
• Friend Emojis can also change over time as you and your friends interact differently.

Does Clearing Conversations Reset the Top 8?

No official Snapchat documentation says that clearing a conversation resets or rebuilds your Best Friends list. Clearing a conversation is a chat-management action, not a documented Best Friends reset tool.

For the same reason, there is no reliable basis for claims that clearing a cache, waiting exactly 24 or 48 hours, or sending a special “power Snap” will force your Top 8 into a new order. If your goal is to change the list, focus on normal communication rather than reset tricks.

Can Other People See Your Entire Top 8?

No. Snapchat says your Best Friends list is private. Other people may be able to see that they are among your Best Friends, but they cannot see your complete list of Best Friends.

The Friend Solar System is different because it can show a Snapchat+ user their position in another person’s Solar System when the relevant Best Friends relationship is displayed. That still does not expose the other person’s complete Top 8 list.

Common Snapchat Top 8 Questions

Can I manually add someone to my Top 8?

Not directly. Snapchat does not provide a normal control for manually adding someone to Best Friends. The list changes as your Snap and Chat activity changes. Snapchat+ does offer private #1 Best Friend pinning, but that is a separate feature.

Can I manually remove someone from Best Friends?

Snapchat says you cannot manually remove someone from Best Friends. As your communication habits change, the Best Friends list can change over time.

Why am I not seeing Friend Solar System?

Friend Solar System is a Snapchat+ feature, and Snapchat says it is off by default for first-time Snapchat+ subscribers. If you have Snapchat+ but cannot find it, check your Snapchat+ feature management settings and make sure Solar System is enabled.

Does being Neptune mean I am a bad friend?

No. Neptune represents the eighth position in that person’s Best Friends list. It describes a current Snapchat interaction position, not the value or quality of a real-life friendship.

How often does Snapchat update Best Friends?

Snapchat says Best Friends are updated regularly. It does not provide a universal public schedule such as an exact hourly or 24-hour refresh time, so a fixed update interval should not be treated as an official rule.

Related Snapchat Guides

• Neptune on Snapchat: What the 8th Friend Planet Means
• How to Reset Snapchat Planets: What Actually Works in 2026
• Snapchat Plus Free Trial: Do You Get Friend Solar System Planets?
• Snapchat Planets on Android vs iPhone: What’s Actually Different?

The Bottom Line

Your Snapchat Top 8 Friends list is best understood as a changing list of the people you Snap and Chat with the most. Snapchat allows up to eight Best Friends and updates the list regularly, but it does not publish a detailed formula for manually controlling every position.

If you use Snapchat+, Friend Solar System can show your position in a friend’s Best Friends list, from Mercury at #1 through Neptune at #8. Snapchat+ also lets you privately pin one person as your #1 Best Friend. These features give you more information and convenience, but they do not turn the Top 8 into a manually editable list.

The safest strategy is simple: use Snapchat naturally, communicate with the people you actually care about, and let the Best Friends list update over time. That approach is more reliable than chasing unofficial formulas or “hacks” that Snapchat itself does not document.

About this guide: This article is written as a practical reference for understanding Snapchat Best Friends, Top 8 rankings, Friend Solar System, and related Snapchat+ features using current Snapchat documentation.