Today we are going to talk to you about the most popular messenger (or is it a social network?) among all teenagers in the world – Snapchat. Adults do not take the service seriously, but young people just adore it.
Is it because the main feature of the application – instantly disappearing photos, because not everyone wants their friends to keep their sent graphic messages; or because of the huge number of graphic effects for photo and video messages? Or maybe it’s the large number of emoji, which in Snapchat are used not only for their direct purpose. It is about emoji and their meanings in this application that we will talk about today. But first, a bit of theory and history.
So, Snapchat is a mobile messaging app with attached photos and videos created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown while studying at Stanford University. This is a kind of mix of messenger and social network, and unlike Facebook, everything here is much brighter and more fun.
This app hit the market back in 2012. The main idea was to share funny photos from everyday life with friends.
On snapchat, you could put pretty filters and fun stickers on them. These publications disappeared after 24 hours. it was from here that Instagram took the idea for its stories.
However, the real popularity of the Snapchat program has gained relatively recently, when it became possible to put so-called masks on the face.
A bit of history
All startups start at university, and Snapchat is no exception! Snapchat’s story is an interesting case study of how data, serendipity, and creativity can interact with each other in the 21st century.
In July 2011, Stanford students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, and Bob Murphy launched an iOS app called Pictaboo. It allowed people to send each other photos with a set “expiration date”, after which they were automatically deleted.
Its concept came about when Brown, while telling Spiegel about sending a bad picture to his girlfriend, remarked that it would be great to come up with a messenger with “self-destructing” photos. This is how the brilliant idea of Snapchat was born.
However, the first product of the university friends’ was Pictaboo – and within a couple months of the service’s existence, it had only gained 127 subscribers. This moment was very difficult for the developer friends, a fight ensued, after which Brown left the project, while Murphy and Spiegel stayed on, renaming Pictaboo to Snapchat.
Today, the total monthly audience of the messenger is almost 400 million people, with more than half of them using it daily. By the way, 90% of the app’s audience are young people between 13 and 24 yo. Almost a half of American teenagers prefer Snapchat to other social platforms and messengers, and this trend is expanding rapidly all over the world.
Snapchat Emoji
So, it’s time to get to the main you of our article, namely Snapchat Emoji. The fact is that this is one of the main features of this messenger, because emoji are everywhere: they are in the contact lists next to the names of friends, they are in the statuses of users, they accompany the stories of celebrities registered on the platform, and also emoji here serve as so-called “trophies”, that is, awards from Snapchat to its users for certain achievements.
As you have already realized, the meanings of some emoji on this platform can be extremely unexpected for new users, and today we just tried to compile for you a kind of guide, after studying which, we hope, you will have no questions left. Well, or almost none at all.
Snapchat Emoji Meaning
The main group of emojis we are going to talk about today are the so-called “friendship indicators”. Those are the emojis you can find in your contact list, placed near the name of a user. And it’s not you choosing what emoticon to put here or there, it’s the Snapchat, hence each of the small bright icons has its very important meaning, which depicts your relationship with other users. There are 14 of such emoji, and here is what they stand for:
💛 Not a yellow, but a Gold Heart. This means the user with this emoji has been your true bestie…for two weeks. In the Snapchat language this emoji indicates a contact, who you exchange most messages with.
❤️ Red heart is the next stage. When you have a Golden Heart emoji next to one’s name for two weeks, the heart will automatically change to Red. So it’s a symbol of a longer friendship.
💕 Another emoji that might seem romantic at the first glance, but it is not. This is the icon, reflecting the real friendship, as you can see this emoji next to the name of a person, who you interact most for longer than two months.
😎 This emoji with a cool dude in black sunglasses means that you and the contact, after which the emoticon is placed, have a common close friend. Connections mean so much today.
😊 The sweet smiling emoji stands for one of your real good friends — not the bestie, but a person, who you often exchange snaps with. Probably this guy/gal will become your best friend soon enough, and change its status to at least a Gold Heart.
😬 This not very friendly grimace emoji explain a more complicated type of relationship. The emoticon is put next to the contact, who you have a common friend with, but with the contact themselves you don’t have much connection. So you are only sharing one best friend.
😏 The Smirking Face is another tricky symbol of the Snapchat contacts. Not being the cutest, this emoticon indicates a person in your contact list, for whom you are one of the best friends. But it is not mutual. They send you snaps and you barely react. So heartbreaking.
🔥 If you see The Fire emoji next to one of the names in your Snapchat contacts, it means you are in a so-called Snapchat Marsthon with the person. In other words, you exchange snaps very often, without any interruption, and the digit, standing next to this emoji tells you about the amount of days in this race.
💯 Instead of a digit near the Fire Emoji, you can sometimes find this red underlined Hundred. And as with any other number, it indicates the number of days you are interacting with one of your friends non-stop.
⌛️ The Hourglass Emoji means your snap-marathon, with the Fire next to it, will end quite soon, so send another Snap to your friend, to keep it going. Hurry, hurry!
🎂 Obviously, if you see the Birthday Cake emoji next to one of your contacts, this means nothing else, but this person’s Birthday. Send a snap to greet a friend! By the way, this emoji can only appear if the user allows it in the “Birthday Party” settings section.
🌟 The Golden Star emoji is put next to the name of a person, whose Snaps got reaction from their friends during the last 24 hours.
👶 This cute Newborn Emoji is a symbol of a new friendship. This emoticon is placed next to your new contact. You have all chances to turn it into a golden heart, or even two pink hearts emoji!
✨ The Sparkles Emoji indicates contacts from your list, who attend to your group chat. Sometimes it’s so fun to make videos together.
That is it for the standard Emoji in Snapchat, but we have so much more to tell you about, so keep reading.
Trophy Emoji
Trophy Emoji are the Snapchat emoticons granted to you by the platform for some of your actions and achievements. Collect the most you can, and become the most titled user!
🌎 The Earth Emoji means that one of your Snaps was posted in a live story. Quite a pleasant trophy we must say.
🔗 The Link Emoji indicates that you have linked your Snapchat account to your personal Bitmoji. And for Bitmoji we have a separate section, so keep reading.
🔵 The Blue Circle Emoji is given to you after you have created a story in the Memories. This reward is not the hardest to achieve.
⚪️ The White Circle Emoji is a platform’s gift for sending a story from your Memories. Why not earn it by sending a story to your bestie?
💽 The Compact Disk Emoji is a badge given to you after you saved a Story in your Memories. Collect your memories to share with your close ones, that’s how the history is written.
👀 The Eyes Emoji means you have changed the privacy settings and now your stories are only visible to you. Sometimes we all need out space and it’s more than normal.
🕵️ The Detective Emoji is a trophy emoticon, meaning you were searching for a Snap in your Memories. We hope you did find what you were looking for.
☝️The meaning of the Finger Pointing Up emoji is not easy to guess. This emoticon stands for the Snap you sent using just one filter. With all that amount of filter in Snapchat it’s not the easiest tasks
✌️Now that we know the meaning of the previous emoji, this one is, logically, a two-filtered Snap. What would be the emoji for 11 filters we wonder..
💫 The Gold Spinning Star is an achievement badge, which means you have gathered 10 thousand Snapchat points. Quite an impressive achievement.
💥 Boom! One of the coolest badges you can get, as it means you have collected 50 Thousand Snapchat points!
🚀 The Rocket Emoji is a trophy, granted to a Snapchat user, who gained 100 thousand points in the social media platform. A true hero.
👻 The Ghost Emoji, as the symbol of the application, is given to the most active users, who got 500 thousand and more points in Snapchat. You can just call it a Champion Badge.
📼 This old-school Video Cassette Emoji you receive from the platform after sending your first video Snap. Let’s say it’s the rookie one.
🎥 After you send 50 video Snaps, you will be granted this emoji depicting a large black Video Camera. But there is more to wish for.
📹 The more modern version of the Video Camera Emoji is granted to you after sending 500 video Snaps. And it’s the best reward in this category.
🌞 This Smiling Sun Emoji is all about the Snapchat filters. It means that you have used a temperature filter with more than 100 degrees on the sent Snap.
❄️ Similarly to the previous emoji trophy, this Snowflake Emoticon is granted to you after sending a Snap with the temperature filter below zero.
🔦 The Flashlight Emoji you will get after sending ten Snapdragon with the flash on the frontal camera. (Selfies with flash, pretty brave idea).
👹 The red Ogre Emoji is a trophy given to a user, who has send a thousand selfies. I bet for you it’s not a big deal.
🔂 This Repeat Emoji means you have send a video Snap, where you have switched between the cameras once. Front-back, why not.
🔁 For sending a snap with several camera switches you will get this Arrows Emoji as a reward.
🔄 The Circle Arrows Emoji will be granted to you for a 10-time camera switch during your video Snap. This already sounds like a challenge.
🙉 The Monkey that Hears Nothing Emoji is a Snapchat reward for sending a no-sound video snap. Read my lips!
🔎 The Magnifying Glass Emoji is the Snapchat trophy for sending 10 photo snaps with magnifier. Do you see a fly?
🔬 The Microscope Emoji means you have sent 10 snaps video snaps with magnifier. That’s what we do for small details.
🔠 The white capital ABCD letters on a blue square is a trophy you get for snaps sent with the enlarged font. I REALLY MEAN IT.
🐼 Panda is not just one of the cutest animals in the world, but also a Snapchat trophy, granted to you for sending 50 black-and-white snaps. Very stylish, we must admit.
🌙 For sending 50 snaps in the Night Mode you will get this beautiful young Moon Emoji. When is the next full moon to take a photo of?
🍳 This Cooking Emoji depicting the best breakfast ever, fried eggs, is a Snapchat trophy, which you get for sending an early snap — between 4 and 5 AM.
🍭 This bright Lollipop Emoji is a reward, given to the users for sending a snap with five or more colors in it.
🌈 The Rainbow Emoji is granted by Snapchat to the users, who send ten colorful snaps (with five or more shades in it).
🎨 The Artist’s Palette Emoji is a trophy given to those, who send 50 and more snaps with the use of five and more colors.
📧 The E-mail Emoji indicates that the user has confirmed his e-Mail address. At least here you can be sure.
☎️ The red old-school Telephone Emoji means that the user has confirmed his phone number. Even a more trustworthy person.
😈 The Smiling Demon Emoji means you have made a screenshot of a snap. Ai-Ai-Ai!
👿 This angry Demon Emoji says you have made ten or more snap screenshots. (I enpretend we know nothing about it).
👺 The Tengu Emoji, depicting a red goblin mask, indicates that you have made 50 and more screenshots of snaps. Guilty.
📻 The Radio Emoji is a trophy, you get after adding your snap to local stories.
🎬 The Cinema Clapper Emoji is a reward you will get for adding ten and more snaps to local stories.
📺 The old-style TV Emoji is a reward you get when someone else adds your snap to local stores.
📠 The Fax (if you still remember what it is) Emoji you get after you scan ten and more snap codes.
Some of the emoji you see next to your friends’ names on your contact list can also signify your accomplishments on the platform. Namely:
👶 The Newborn Emoji means you have earned ten Snapchat points. You are just starting your journey with this app!
🌟 The Star Emoji is a reward for gaining 100 Snapchat points. Keep going!
✨ The Sparkles Emoji is a trophy, which means you have already reached the Thousand points mark in Snapchat.
Special Emoji
And again, our Snapchat Emoji list is not complete yet! There are also emojis, granted to officially confirmed accounts, owned mostly by celebrities. This category of Emoji has all the possible images in it, and it is constantly updating, so we will name only the most popular names below.
🎈 Balloon Snapchat Emoji: Rihanna
💪 Snapchat Bicep Emoji: Arnold Schwarzenegger
🌵 Snapchat Cactus Emoji: Jared Leto
💫 Swirling Star Snapchat Emoji: Emily Ratakowski
🌙 Crescent Moon Snapchat Emoji: Ariana Grande
👑 Snapchat Emoji Crown: Kylie Jenner
📀 Disk Snapchat Emoji: David Guetta
🔑 Snapchat Emoji Key: DJ Khaled
💟 Pink Heart Snapchat emoji: Selena Gomez
Bitmoji
Emoji have become an important part of our communication. While the right emoji can convey a lot of emotions and expressions, they are not always perfect. Bitmoji is one way you can add a little personality to your emojis.
You can make personalized full-length emoji with your face, hair, body type.The app makes movies out of them – cartoon stories in which the bitmoji you compose is the main character. Bitmoji are so simple that each chat generates a pack of stickers that show you and the person you’re texting with in different situations: hugs, declarations of love, comical situations. These are, for example, stickers of me and my friend.
Personalized stickers are what Bimoji is all about. Essentially, you customize a cartoon caricature of yourself, and then you can put that avatar in different scenes, choose your expressions, and just have a lot of fun with it. Bitmoji positions itself as “your personal emoji,” and that’s exactly what it is.
Conclusion
The main and obvious reason for Snapchat’s popularity is the self-destruct function of messages. It forces recipients to scrutinize the text or photo they receive, because there will be no opportunity to reread the message. All this brings Snapchat communication closer to live and natural. Young people use it to send photos and videos that would never be sent through a regular messenger (often forgetting about the ability to take a screenshot). But emoji, as well as bitmoji, played not the last role in the popularity of the application, because visuals are what attracts us in the first place.
On Snapchat, emoji are not just pictures expressing emotions, they are a kind of indicator of your friendships with other users, and your achievements on the platform.
