You tap a badge on a friend’s profile, and a planet appears. Maybe you’re Earth, which feels fine. Maybe you’re Neptune, and now you’re replaying every snap you left on read. Snapchat Planets aren’t a verdict on the friendship. They show where you rank on that person’s Best Friends list, with Mercury in first place and Neptune in eighth.
This guide covers the full order, what each position means, how to switch the feature on, and what a ranking can and can’t tell you. Where other guides disagree, it sticks to what Snapchat’s own help pages say.
What Are Snapchat Planets?
Snapchat Planets are the eight planet icons in the Friend Solar System, a Snapchat+ feature that shows your position on a friend’s Best Friends list. Snapchat’s help page says each planet represents a different position on that list, and that Best Friends means the eight friends someone Snaps and chats with most.
The Snapchat solar system is a visual metaphor. Snapchat swaps a numbered ranking for planets and borrows one thing from astronomy: the sequence. Mercury means first because Mercury is first in the real solar system, not because of size, heat, or orbit. Snap planets are a display, not an astronomy lesson.
How the Snapchat Friend Solar System Works
Once you subscribe to Snapchat+ and switch the feature on, a Best Friends badge with a gold ring can appear on a friend’s Friendship Profile. Tap it, and Snapchat shows which planet you are in that person’s solar system, drawn as a Friendmoji.
The direction matters. The planet describes your place in their list, not theirs in yours. If you’re Venus in your cousin’s system, you’re the second person they snap and chat with most. Where your cousin sits in your list could be completely different.
Snapchat’s help pages say “Solar System” and “Friend Solar Systems,” while most guides say Friend Solar System. All of those names point to the same feature.
What Your Planet Position Represents
Your position is your rank among the eight friends someone snaps and chats with most. Mercury is first, and Neptune is eighth. The planets Snapchat assigns carry nothing else, so a ringed planet like Saturn has no extra meaning.
Snapchat doesn’t publish a score or a formula. Its help page ties the list to snapping and chatting, and that’s as far as anyone can go with confidence. Some guides name streaks, story replies, and calls as separate inputs. Those are assumptions, not documented rules.
Snapchat Planets in Order
The order follows the real solar system, Mercury to Neptune, and each planet stands for one rank from first to eighth. Snapchat’s help page shows all eight Friendmoji in that sequence, and Digital Trends’ explainer describes the same logic: the closer the planet is to the sun, the higher that friend ranks. Snapchat’s page doesn’t print a number beside each planet, so the ranks below come from that sequence and that coverage.
Here are the Snapchat planets in order:
| Planet | Rank on their Best Friends list | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 1 | You are the friend they snap and chat with most. |
| Venus | 2 | Second most |
| Earth | 3 | Third most |
| Mars | 4 | Fourth most |
| Jupiter | 5 | Fifth, the middle of the eight |
| Saturn | 6 | Sixth most |
| Uranus | 7 | Seventh, one spot from the edge |
| Neptune | 8 | Eighth, the last spot on the list |
Astronomy and Snapchat have two separate orders. In space, Jupiter is the largest planet and Saturn has rings, but neither fact matters here. Snapchat only borrowed the running order.
Mercury
Mercury is first place. You’re the person your friend Snaps and chats with most right now.
Venus
Venus is second. Only one person ranks higher, and Snapchat doesn’t show how wide that gap is.
Earth
Earth is third. Two friends rank above you, which is a solid spot given how many contacts most people have.
Mars
Mars is fourth, the first position outside the top three. It isn’t a warning sign. It’s still a top-eight slot.
Jupiter
Jupiter is fifth, right in the middle. It’s the biggest planet in real life, but here it isn’t more important than the ones before it.
Saturn
Saturn is sixth. The ring is just part of the icon. The position says you’re inside their eight.
Uranus
Uranus is seventh, one step from the edge. A spot this close to the cutoff moves easily when the person starts chatting more with someone else.
Neptune
Neptune is eighth and last. It sounds like the outsider slot, but it means you made the cut. A friend outside the top eight has no planet to show you.
Snapchat Planet Order Explained
Read the order from the sun outward. The person whose solar system you’re viewing is the sun, and the closer your planet sits, the higher you rank. If you were hunting for snap planets in order, that’s the whole system: eight spots, one per rank, nothing beyond Neptune.
How the Order Relates to Friendship Ranking
The Snapchat planet order ranks snapping and chatting, not affection. Picture two people. One lives with you and rarely messages on Snapchat. The other lives abroad and snaps you daily. The list favors the second, even if the first matters more in real life. As a friendship ranking, it only covers what happens inside the app.
What the Closest Planet Means
In the snap planet order, “closest” always means “first.” Mercury tells you that you’re at the top of someone’s list right now, and it lasts only while the snapping and chatting do. It says nothing about their other messaging apps.
Snapchat Best Friends Planets: What Does Your Position Mean?
Your position means you’re one of the eight friends that person snaps and chats with most, and the planet tells you which slot you hold. Any planet means you made the list. The specific one only shows how far you are from the top.
How Best Friends and the Friend Solar System Connect
Best Friends is the core Snapchat idea: the people someone interacts with most. The Solar System is the Snapchat+ layer that lets a subscriber see their own slot on someone else’s list, drawn as a planet. It’s a display on top of a list Snapchat already keeps, not a separate score.
Digital Trends notes that the Best Friends badge and the plain Friends badge aren’t the same thing, so check which one you’re looking at before reading anything into it.
Can Your Planet’s Position Change?
Yes. Best Friends follows snapping and chatting, so your slot moves when habits move. A friend who starts a new job, joins a busy group chat, or drifts to another app can push you from Mars to Saturn without either of you noticing.
Snapchat doesn’t publish how often positions refresh, and the only control its help page describes is switching the feature on or off. You can’t pick a planet. You can only change how much you snap and chat.
How to See Snapchat Planets
Seeing Snapchat Planets takes three things: a Snapchat+ subscription, the feature switched on, and a friend who has you in their eight.
Where to Find the Friend Solar System
Open a friend’s Friendship Profile and look for the Best Friends badge with the gold ring. Tap it, and Snapchat shows which planet you are in their solar system. That’s why planets on Snapchat appear on friends’ profiles: each planet is your slot in that particular person’s list.
If no badge shows up, you may not be in their eight, or the feature may be off on your account.
What You Need to Access the Feature
- A Snapchat+ subscription. As of 2026, Snapchat’s help center still lists Solar System among its Snapchat+ features. Pricing varies by country and device, and the price shown in your Snapchat settings is the one you’ll pay.
- The feature turned on. It’s off by default for first-time subscribers. Switch it on from the Snapchat+ feature management page, and toggle it off whenever you like.
- A spot in your friend’s top eight. Without a Best Friends slot, there’s no planet to display.
- Possibly a subscription on their side. Snapchat’s page only mentions the person tapping the badge, but some third-party guides say both people need Snapchat+. Snapchat doesn’t confirm that, so treat it as unverified.
What Do Snapchat Planets Actually Tell You?
A planet tells you one thing: your rank among one person’s eight most active Snapchat contacts. Everything beyond that is interpretation.
What the Ranking Can Indicate
It shows where that person’s Snapchat attention is going right now. If your Snapchat planet slides from Venus to Jupiter, they’re probably talking to other people more on the app, or you’ve gone quiet yourself. It’s also a low-stakes way to notice who you’re actively in touch with and a decent conversation starter.
What the Ranking Does Not Tell You
- How they feel about you. It isn’t an emotion score.
- What happens on other apps or in person.
- How big the gaps are. Snapchat shows no scores, so Mercury and Venus could be nearly tied or far apart.
- Who else is on their list.
It also isn’t mutual by default. They can be your Mercury while you’re their Uranus.
Common Misunderstandings About Snapchat Planets
Bigger or fancier planets don’t mean a stronger friendship. Rank comes only from position. A low planet isn’t a snub either, particularly if that person texts you on another app.
Snap planets also aren’t a public label. Snapchat’s help page describes the planet as something a subscriber sees by tapping a badge on a friendship profile, not something posted for everyone to see on yours.
Then there’s the guide problem. Anyone searching for the Snap solar system lands on dozens of near-identical pages, and they don’t all agree, for instance, on whether your friend needs Snapchat+ too. Content teams can take something from that: when a term draws steady curiosity, a page that checks the primary source and answers the question quickly serves readers better. That search-led approach to informational content is the kind of work agencies such as DigitallyTop do for publishers and brands.
Why Snapchat Planets Can Change Over Time
Two things move. Your position changes with your activity, as covered above. The Snapchat solar system itself changes too. Snapchat’s help center currently mentions new Snapchat+ items such as a Platinum plan and promo codes, which shows how quickly the subscription evolves. Names, toggles, and eligibility can shift, so if a step here doesn’t match your app, trust the app and Snapchat’s help center over any guide, this one included.
The same problem hits every feature explainer. A page that was right last year quietly becomes wrong, and readers lose trust. A refresh routine for feature-based content is the kind of thing a content strategy from DigitallyTop would plan in from the start.
Conclusion
Mercury through Neptune is a ranking from first to eighth on someone’s Best Friends list, drawn as planets. You need Snapchat+, you need the feature switched on, and you need to be inside that person’s eight. Snap planets are best read as a snapshot of Snapchat activity, not a grade for the friendship.
The same principle applies to brands and digital teams: people search in plain questions, and useful content answers them accurately. If you’re planning content and search strategy for your own audience, DigitallyTop can help you think it through.
