Snapchat Planets Explained: Order, Meaning, and How It Works

Snapchat Planets is a Snapchat+ feature that turns your closest friendships into a visual “solar system,” with each planet showing where you rank in another person’s top friend list. If you have ever opened a friend’s profile, seen a Best Friends or Friends badge, and wondered what the planet means, this guide breaks it down.

In Snapchat’s Friend Solar System, you are the Sun, and the planet you see represents your position in that person’s top eight friends on Snapchat. Mercury means you are their closest friend, while Neptune means you are still in their top eight, but farther down the list.

What Snapchat Planets are

Friend Solar Systems are part of Snapchat+, the platform’s paid subscription, and they are optional rather than automatically visible to everyone. Snapchat says the feature is private, only available with Snapchat+, and turned off by default for first-time subscribers unless they manually enable it in Snapchat+ feature settings.

When the feature is active, tapping the friendship badge on a profile shows your planet in that person’s solar system, with each planet standing for a different friend-ranking position. Snapchat also says this is a visual friendship insight, not a public scoreboard that other people can browse on your profile.

Snapchat Planets order

The order follows the real solar system from closest to farthest, and each step matches a position in the top eight friends list.

• Mercury = #1 best friend
• Venus = #2 best friend
• Earth = #3 best friend
• Mars = #4 best friend
• Jupiter = #5 best friend
• Saturn = #6 best friend
• Uranus = #7 best friend
• Neptune = #8 best friend

What each planet means in Snapchat

1. Mercury

Mercury means you are someone’s closest Snapchat friend, which generally reflects the strongest recent interaction level in that friendship view. If you see Mercury, you are effectively in the number one position in their Friend Solar System.

2. Venus

Venus means you are their second closest Snapchat friend. You are still one of their strongest interactions, just not in the top slot.

3. Earth

Earth represents the third position in the ranking. Many visual guides note that Earth is one of the easiest planets to recognize because of its familiar blue-and-green look.

4. Mars

Mars means you are in fourth place in that friend ranking. You are still part of the inner circle, but below the top three.

5. Jupiter

Jupiter represents the fifth friend position. If you see it, you are still in the top eight but moving farther from the highest interaction tier.

6. Saturn

Saturn stands for the sixth position. It is usually the easiest one to recognize visually because of the rings.

7. Uranus

Uranus means seventh place in the friend ranking. At this point, you are still a top friend, but not one of the very closest.

8. Neptune

Neptune means you are eighth in that person’s Friend Solar System. That still places you in their top eight friends, even though it is the farthest visible planet in the feature.

How Snapchat decides the ranking

Snapchat’s official support wording focuses on how often you snap and chat with someone, and the feature is meant to reflect your place in a rolling friendship pattern rather than a fixed permanent rank. In practice, users and third-party explainers commonly describe the order as being influenced by how frequently you exchange snaps, chats, and other interactions over time, but Snapchat does not publicly publish a full scoring formula.

That means the ranking can change. A friend who is Mercury today may move lower later if your interactions slow down and someone else becomes more active in that person’s recent Snapchat habits.

Best Friends vs Friends badge

Snapchat support says Snapchat+ subscribers may see a Best Friends badge with a gold ring on someone’s friendship profile, and that indicates a top mutual friendship relationship within the system. Tapping the badge shows which planet you are in their solar system, with the planet corresponding to your position in their best friends list.

How to turn Snapchat Planets on

Snapchat says Friend Solar Systems is off by default for first-time subscribers, so you may need to enable it manually in the Snapchat+ feature management area. The basic process is:

1. Open Snapchat and go to your profile.
2. Tap Snapchat+.
3. Find the Solar System or Friend Solar System setting.
4. Turn it on.

If you do not enable it, you may have Snapchat+ and still never see the planets feature on profiles.

Why Snapchat Planets may not show

There are a few common reasons:

• You are not a Snapchat+ subscriber, because the feature is limited to Snapchat+.
• The feature is turned off, since Snapchat says it is off by default for first-time subscribers.
• The person is not in your top friendship range or you are not in theirs, so the badge may not appear in the way you expect.
• Snapchat may adjust feature visibility or defaults over time, as Snap has already announced changes to default behavior for the Solar System feature.

Is Snapchat Planets public?

No, Snapchat says the feature is private and not visible to everyone else. It is designed as a personal friendship insight for Snapchat+ users rather than a public ranking board on your account.

Important thing to know

Snap specifically said in 2026 that the Solar System is optional, private, used by a very small share of the community daily on average, and is not a numerical ranking shown publicly to others. That is useful context because many online explanations make the feature sound more public or more exact than Snapchat itself describes it.

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