Your Ultimate Guide to Snapchat Slang

Learn about Snapchat slang and what different emojis mean — in addition to Snapchat dangers, conversation starters, and FAQs.

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Snapchat Slang Emoji Dictionary

🔥

Snapstreak

The fire emoji appears next to the number of days two users have continually Snapped each other. Some teens have Snapstreaks going for years!

⌛️

Snapstreak is ending

Two users with a Snapstreak will see this as a reminder to send a Snap to each other within 24 hours, or else they’ll lose their Snapstreak!

😊

Best Friends (BFs)

Users will see this emoji with someone they send a lot of Snaps to. You can have up to eight BFs.

💛

Besties

When you’re besties on Snapchat, that means you both send each other the most Snaps — it’s a big deal!

❤️

Best Friend Forever (BFF)

This means two users have been each other’s #1 Best Friend for two weeks straight.

💕

Super Best Friend Forever (Super BFF)

When you’ve reached Super BFF status, you’ve been each other’s #1 Best Friend for two months in a row.

😬

Mutual Besties

Why the grimace face, you ask? It’s because this emoji appears when both users share the same #1 Best Friend!

😎

Mutual Best Friends (BFs)

This shows up when a user shares a Best Friend with someone.

🎂

Birthday

You’ll see a cake appear next to a user’s name on their birthday (or whatever birth date they happened to enter on Snapchat).

Common Dangers of Snapchat 👀

Snapchat poses a wide range of threats to young people, including:

Sexting
Communication with drug dealers
Cyberbullying
Sextortion
Online predators
Anxiety/depression from FOMO (fear of missing out)

Snapchat was the #2 platform Bark flagged

for severe bullying in 2021.

—Bark 2021 annual report

See the data

Snapchat's Drug Problem

There has been a recent rise of kids getting access to drugs through Snapchat — drugs they can purchase and have shipped to their homes quickly and easily.

This is increasingly common and can cost children their lives.

Learn more

Want to receive slang alerts?

Bark is a parental control tool that gives you important insights into your kid’s world.

This includes sending you alerts if your kid is sending or receiving concerning slang, informing you about Gen Z trends, and giving you an overview of whether your child’s messages are more positive or negative.

Get insights

Snapchat Conversation Starters for Families

“Which of Snapchat’s features are you most excited to use? Why?
“There’s been a lot of discussion on the internet about how dangerous Snapchat can be. What are some of the dangers you’ve heard about?”
“How would you react if someone asked you to send a photo of yourself that made you feel uncomfortable?”
What do you think “disappearing messages” really means? Do you think there are ways that they may not vanish?

Snapchat FAQs

Can kids still log into Snapchat without the app?

You can’t really use Snapchat without a phone. Technically, you can log in on a web browser and manage certain parts of your account, but you can’t send or receive messages.

Does Snapchat have parental controls?

Parents can try to keep their kids safer by adjusting some technical settings in Snapchat, including who can contact their kids, who can view stories, and who can see their location. Unfortunately, none of these settings are password-protected, so they’re easily toggled back on.

Snapchat also doesn't currently allow third-party tools to help with this on iOS devices.

Will Snapchat share your kid's location?

If your child doesn’t enable Ghost Mode, their location will be shared with their contacts on Snapchat.

How old do you have to be to use Snapchat?

According to Snapchat’s terms of service, users have to be at least 13 years old to use the app. However, there’s no age-verification process to create an account, so this requirement is easily bypassed.