Reviewed and last updated on August 15, 2026 by Awais Ahmed, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Urban Scope News.
Snapchat Planets, officially called the Friend Solar System, is a Snapchat+ feature that ranks your closest friends by assigning each one a planet based on how much you interact with them. Your number one best friend appears as Mercury, the planet nearest the sun, while your eighth closest friend appears as Neptune, furthest away. The ranking updates automatically as your chatting habits change, and the feature is only available to Snapchat+ subscribers.
What Snapchat Planets Means (Order and Numbers)
Snapchat Planets works like a miniature solar system built around your friendships. You sit at the centre as the Sun, and your top eight friends orbit around you as planets. The friend you interact with the most sits closest, in Mercury’s position, while the friend you interact with least among your top eight sits furthest out, as Neptune.
The full order runs as follows:
| Position | Planet | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury | Your closest friend, with the highest interaction |
| 2 | Venus | Your second closest friend |
| 3 | Earth | A strong, consistent friendship |
| 4 | Mars | Regular contact, slightly less frequent than the top three |
| 5 | Jupiter | A solid friendship with moderate interaction |
| 6 | Saturn | An occasional friend, with contact tied to specific events |
| 7 | Uranus | An acquaintance with distant, infrequent contact |
| 8 | Neptune | The friend you interact with least among your top eight |
Each position reflects your interaction ranking, not a fixed friendship label. A friend can move up or down the order as your snap and chat activity with them changes over time.
What Each Planet Position Says About Your Friendship Ranking
The planet order is a snapshot rather than a permanent judgement. Mercury and Venus positions usually go to the people you snap chat with daily or maintain long streaks with. Saturn, Uranus and Neptune tend to represent friends you still keep in touch with, just less often, such as contact that spikes around birthdays or specific events rather than daily conversation.
How Snapchat Planets Works
The Friend Solar System is built into Snapchat+, Snapchat’s paid subscription tier, so it is not available to free users. Once subscribed, you need to switch the feature on manually, as it is disabled by default.
How to Find Your Snapchat Planets
- Open Snapchat and tap your Bitmoji icon in the top left corner.
- Tap the Snapchat+ icon.
- Find the Friend Solar System toggle and switch it on.
- Open a friend’s profile to view your planet position with them, indicated by a small badge.
Both people need an active Snapchat+ subscription for the feature to display. If a friend does not subscribe, or if the toggle is switched off on either side, no planet ranking will appear.
What Determines Your Planet Position
Snapchat bases the ranking on interaction signals rather than a single metric. This includes how often you send snaps, how frequently you chat, story replies and reactions, and the length of any snap streaks you share. Snapchat does not publish the exact weighting of its algorithm, so the ranking should be read as a general reflection of activity rather than an exact science.
How Often Snapchat Planets Updates
Snapchat Planets updates automatically based on ongoing interaction, though the frequency is not fixed. Rankings can shift daily or weekly depending on how active the conversation with a given friend is.
Why Your Planets Might Seem Stuck or Wrong
A few common causes explain most issues:
- The Friend Solar System toggle is switched off in your Snapchat+ settings.
- Your friend does not have an active Snapchat+ subscription.
- The app needs updating to the latest version.
- The ranking simply has not refreshed yet, since updates are not always instant.
Clearing the Snapchat app cache or reinstalling the app can resolve display issues if the planets fail to load correctly.
Is Snapchat Planets Accurate?
Snapchat Planets reflects interaction frequency, so it is accurate in the sense that it measures real activity between you and a friend. It is not a perfect measure of emotional closeness, since it cannot account for things like a long friendship with low daily chat volume, or contact happening on other platforms.
Common Misconceptions
A frequent claim circulating online suggests there is a hidden ninth planet unlockable through extremely high interaction. This is not accurate. The system has consistently shown eight planet positions, and no verified evidence of a ninth has surfaced. The rumour appears to stem from Snapchat keeping its ranking algorithm private, which leaves room for speculation whenever the app behaves unexpectedly.
Snapchat Planets and Your Best Friends List (BSF)
Snapchat Planets is closely tied to your Best Friends list, often abbreviated to BSF. The eight planet positions correspond directly to your top eight ranked friends, with Mercury representing your number one best friend and Neptune your eighth.
How Your BSF List Connects to Planet Order
Your Best Friends list on Snapchat has existed for years as a ranking of who you interact with most. The Friend Solar System builds on this by giving each position in that list a visual planet identity, making the existing ranking easier to see at a glance.
Can You Customise or Hide Your Snapchat Planets
The Friend Solar System toggle can be switched off at any time from Snapchat+ settings, which hides your planet rankings from friends without affecting your underlying Best Friends list. The feature is private between you and each individual friend, so no single person can see your full planet ranking with everyone else.
Quick Reference: Every Planet Meaning at a Glance
- Mercury: Closest friend, highest interaction
- Venus: Second closest friend
- Earth: Strong, consistent friendship
- Mars: Regular but slightly less frequent contact
- Jupiter: Moderate, steady interaction
- Saturn: Occasional friend, event-driven contact
- Uranus: Distant acquaintance
- Neptune: Least interaction among your top eight
Is There a Premium Version of Snapchat Planets?
Snapchat Planets is itself a premium feature, included as part of a Snapchat+ subscription rather than sold as a separate add-on. There is no additional paid tier beyond Snapchat+ required to access the Friend Solar System. Free Snapchat accounts cannot view planet rankings at all.
