Best Friends Snapchat Planets: Full Order, Meanings, and How the Friend Solar System Works

Snapchat Planets is a Snapchat+ exclusive feature that assigns each of your top eight friends a planet based on how often you interact — Mercury for your closest friend, Neptune for your eighth. Rankings shift automatically as your activity changes.

What Are Snapchat Planets?

Snapchat Planets is part of the Friend Solar System — a feature built into Snapchat+ that visualizes your top eight friendships as planets orbiting around you. Each planet maps to a rank position based on how often you snap, chat, and engage with that person on the app.

Mercury goes to the friend you interact with most. Neptune goes to the eighth. Simple in concept, but a lot of users find themselves confused about the colors, the order, and why planets sometimes disappear or look wrong.

As noted on the Snapchat Wikipedia page, Snapchat+ launched in June 2022 and introduced the Friend Solar System as one of its headline subscription features, expanding the way friendships are visually displayed beyond the standard emoji system.

One thing worth flagging early: both you and the friend you're viewing need active Snapchat+ subscriptions for this to work. That catches a lot of people off guard.

Snapchat Planets Order: All 8 Planets and What They Mean

The planet order mirrors the real solar system — Mercury through Neptune — with each planet representing one rank position in your Best Friends list. Pluto, as in real life, does not make the cut.

Planet	Rank	Visual Appearance	What It Means
Mercury	#1	Red planet, red hearts	Your most-interacted friend
Venus	#2	Light brown, pink/yellow/blue hearts	2nd most-interacted friend
Earth	#3	Blue-green, moon, red hearts, stars	3rd most-interacted friend
Mars	#4	Red planet, blue and purple hearts	4th most-interacted friend
Jupiter	#5	Orange planet, stars only (no hearts)	5th most-interacted friend
Saturn	#6	Yellow-gold, rings and stars	6th most-interacted friend
Uranus	#7	Green planet, yellow stars	7th most-interacted friend
Neptune	#8	Blue planet, minimal decoration	8th most-interacted friend

Worth noting: from Jupiter onward, the heart symbols disappear from the visual design — only stars remain. That's not a glitch. It's just how Snapchat visually distinguishes the outer planets from the inner ones.

Rankings are not permanent. As your interaction patterns change, positions shift automatically.

How the Snapchat Friend Solar System Works

You Are the Sun

In your solar system, you're always at the center. Your eight closest friends orbit around you as planets. The closer a planet sits to the sun, the more frequently you interact with that person on Snapchat.

What Signals Are Believed to Affect Your Ranking

Snapchat has never publicly confirmed the exact formula behind its ranking algorithm. Based on widely reported user observations, the signals that appear to influence rankings include:

• How often you send and receive snaps with a friend
• Back-and-forth chat frequency and length
• Whether you maintain an active streak together
• Responding to a friend's stories rather than just viewing them
• Voice and video calls made through the Snapchat app
• How quickly you reply to messages

In practice, most users find that daily snapping and consistent chat activity move a friend toward Mercury faster than anything else. But because Snapchat keeps the exact algorithm private, none of this is officially confirmed — treat it as informed observation, not guaranteed fact.

Best Friends Badge vs Friends Badge

When you visit a friend's profile, you may see one of two badges. They look similar but mean different things.

Badge Type	What It Means	Is It Mutual?
Best Friends (gold ring)	Both of you are in each other's top 8	Yes
Friends (standard)	You're in their top 8, but not vice versa	No

One-sided rankings happen more often than people expect. You can be someone's Mercury without them being anywhere near your top eight. That's not unusual — it just reflects different usage patterns.

How to See and Enable Snapchat Planets

How to See Which Planet You Are on a Friend's Profile

1. Open Snapchat and go to the chat window or search bar
2. Find your friend and open their profile
3. Look for a badge with a gold ring around it — either Best Friends or Friends
4. Tap the badge
5. Snapchat will show you which planet you represent in their solar system

If there's no badge visible, either you or your friend doesn't have Snapchat+, or the feature hasn't been turned on in settings. Both users need an active subscription for this to appear.

How to Turn On Friend Solar System

Friend Solar System is switched off by default for all new Snapchat+ subscribers. You have to enable it manually.

1. Open Snapchat and tap your profile icon (top left)
2. Tap your Snapchat+ membership card or banner
3. Go to the Feature Management page
4. Find Friend Solar System and toggle it on

You can switch it off again at any time without losing your data or rankings.

Snapchat+ Subscription Requirement

Snapchat Planets is locked behind a Snapchat+ subscription. Pricing varies by region and can change, so always verify inside the app — but here's a general idea of how the plans are structured:

Plan Duration	Approx. Monthly Cost	Savings vs Monthly
1 Month	~$3.99/month	—
6 Months	~$3.67/month	~8%
12 Months	~$3.33/month	~17%

Prices listed are approximate and may differ by region and app store.

A free trial may be available for new subscribers in some regions — worth checking before committing to a paid plan.

How to Improve Your Snapchat Planet Ranking

Since rankings are driven entirely by interaction, there's no shortcut and no manual override. The only way to move closer to someone's sun is to genuinely use the app more with them.

What tends to work:

• Snap daily rather than occasionally
• Reply quickly — response time appears to carry weight
• Keep streaks active rather than letting them lapse
• React to stories instead of just passively viewing
• Start conversations rather than always waiting for the other person
• Use Snapchat's voice and video call functions when possible

That said, chasing a planet ranking for its own sake can feel hollow pretty fast. These are interaction metrics, not friendship scores.

What Snapchat Planets Do Not Tell You

Planet Rank vs Real Friendship Quality

A friend sitting at Neptune isn't less important. They may communicate differently, prefer other platforms, or simply use Snapchat less often. Planet rank reflects app behavior, nothing more.

You cannot manually reorder or override planet assignments — the system runs entirely in the background. Your solar system is also private. Nobody else can see your rankings unless you share them yourself.

Snapchat Planets vs Snap Score vs Streaks

These three features get confused constantly. They measure entirely different things.

Feature	What It Measures	Requires Snapchat+?
Snapchat Planets	Relative interaction rank among your top 8 friends	Yes
Snap Score	Total overall app activity across all contacts	No
Streaks	Consecutive daily snaps with one specific friend	No

Extended Best Friends List vs Snapchat Planets

Standard Snapchat shows a plain text-based Best Friends list. Snapchat+ replaces this with the visual planet system. Both reflect the same underlying interaction data — the difference is purely in how that data is presented. Planets make it visual and specific; the standard list just shows names.

Things Worth Knowing About Snapchat Planets

The Psychology of Planet Rankings

Seeing yourself as someone's Mercury feels good. Dropping from Venus to Jupiter can feel oddly personal — even if you know, rationally, that it's just an algorithm.

This isn't accidental.

As reported by TechCrunch, Snapchat intentionally designed the Friend Solar System to keep users more active on the app — when people care about their ranking, they snap more, reply faster, and open the app more often. The same report noted that the feature drew criticism after it was found to contribute to anxiety among teen users, which led Snap to switch the feature off by default for new subscribers.

If checking your planet position starts affecting how you feel about a friendship, the feature can be disabled in Snapchat+ settings at any time. The option is there for a reason.

The 9th Planet Rumor

A persistent rumor on TikTok and Reddit claims Snapchat has a hidden ninth planet that unlocks at extremely high interaction levels. Snapchat has officially confirmed the system contains exactly eight planets, matching the real solar system. No verified evidence of a ninth planet exists.

The rumor likely spread because Snapchat keeps its ranking algorithm private. When people can't see how something works, speculation fills the gap. Some users mistook app glitches for hidden planet behavior. Unless Snapchat officially announces otherwise, the ninth planet remains exactly that — a rumor.

Snapchat Planets in 2026

Snapchat rolled out improved planet animations in 2026, along with new Bitmoji reactions inside the Friend Solar System interface. A feature called Galaxy Badges is currently being tested, which may reward users who maintain consistent interaction with their closest friends. Rollout is happening in stages and isn't available in all regions yet.

Snapchat Planets Not Showing — Fixes for Common Problems

Problem	Most Likely Cause	Fix
No planets visible at all	Snapchat+ expired or feature toggled off	Renew subscription or enable toggle in settings
No badge on a friend's profile	Friend doesn't have Snapchat+	Both users need active subscriptions
Planet ranking looks wrong	Rankings haven't recalculated yet	Wait a few hours and recheck
Planet icon frozen or not animating	App cache issue	Clear app cache or reinstall Snapchat
Feature missing after payment	Login session not refreshed	Log out and log back in
Planets disappeared suddenly	Subscription lapsed	Renew Snapchat+ to restore the feature

If none of the above resolves the issue, update Snapchat to the latest available version before contacting support. An outdated app version is a surprisingly common cause of display issues that have nothing to do with your subscription status.

Conclusion

Snapchat Planets maps your top eight friendships onto the solar system — Mercury for your closest friend, Neptune for your eighth. Rankings are automatic, interaction-driven, and shift over time. The feature requires Snapchat+ for both users and must be manually enabled in settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do both users need Snapchat+ to see Snapchat Planets?

Yes. If either user doesn't have an active Snapchat+ subscription, the planet badge won't appear on their profile regardless of your own subscription status.

Can I change which planet I am on someone's profile?

No. Planet assignments are fully automatic. There is no manual override — only consistent interaction with that person on the app can shift your position.

How often do Snapchat planet rankings update?

Rankings update continuously in the background. Changes in your interaction habits may take a few hours to reflect visibly in the solar system display.

Is there a 9th planet on Snapchat?

No. Snapchat has officially confirmed the Friend Solar System contains exactly eight planets. The ninth planet rumor is unverified and has never been substantiated.

Are my Snapchat Planets visible to other people?

No. Your solar system is private by default. Only you can see your own rankings unless you choose to share a screenshot yourself.