What Is a Streak?

A streak or a “snapstreak” is a representation of how many days in a row you’ve managed to send photo or video snaps back and forth with a specific friend. For example, if you sent snaps to a friend every day for five days and they also replied to you with snaps each one of those five days, your snapstreak would be at a count of five.

How to See Your Snapstreaks

Snapstreaks appear directly beside a friend’s name in your conversations tab. The snapstreak is represented by the flame emoji, which may or may not be accompanied by additional Snapchat emojis that represent other meanings about your friendship. As your snapstreaks grow, you’ll also see a number appear beside the flame emoji, representing the number of days you’ve kept your snapstreak going. If you keep a snapstreak going for 100 days, the red hundred points emoji will appear beside the flame emoji.

How to Make Sure You Keep up With Your Snapstreaks

To avoid losing your snapstreak, you and the friend you’re snapping must send photo or video snaps to each other within a 24-hour window. It’s a team effort–so if you keep your snapping up within that 24-hour window, but your friend doesn’t, your snapstreak will disappear and you’ll have to start all over again! You don’t necessarily need to know exactly when your 24-hour window ends. Snapchat will remind you that you need to snap each other soon by putting an hourglass emoji beside your friend’s name on the conversation tab when your time is almost up. 

Interactions That Don’t Count Toward Your Snapstreaks

There are lots of different ways to interact with friends on Snapchat, but most of them won’t contribute to any snapstreaks that you have going. These include:

Chatting: On Snapchat, you can tap any friend’s name to open a chat with them, which may be very convenient, but unfortunately won’t contribute to your snapstreaks. Posting Stories: If you post a story and friends view it, it will not affect any snapstreaks you have with any of those particular friends who viewed your story. Sending Snaps to a Group: You’d think that photo and video snaps sent to a group of friends would count toward snapstreaks that you have going with friends who are a part of that group, but nope! Sorry. To keep your snapstreaks going, you’ll have to send snaps to those friends on an individual basis. Sending Snaps from Memories: Photo and video snaps that have been taken previously and saved in Memories (or uploaded from your device) won’t do anything for your snapstreaks if you send them within your 24-hour snapstreak window, most likely because they’ve been snapped/saved from a different time. Sharing Content Through Snapchat Spectacles: Got a pair of Snapchat Spectacles? They might make you feel like a super Snapchatter, but again, the video footage you record and share through them will not count toward any of your snapstreaks.

The Only Two Interactions That Count Toward Your Snapstreaks

There are just two things you need to do to keep your snapstreaks going for as long as possible. These include: ​That’s it. If you can remember to send a photo or video snap to a friend–not in a group snap and within that 24-hour window of your last snap interaction–then you should have no problem keeping up with your snapstreaks!

How to Share Your Snapstreaks With Your Friends Using Filters and Stickers

Snapchat has a couple of fun features to help you remind and encourage your friends to reply promptly with a photo or video snap so you keep your snapstreaks going. They include:

Snapstreak filters: Double-tap on a friend’s name in your conversations tab, take a photo or video snap, and then start swiping left or right through the available filters. If you have a snapstreak filter going with that particular friend, you’ll see a filter featuring your snapstreak in large white numbers alongside the flame emoji. Snapstreak Bitmoji stickers: If you’ve connected Snapchat to your Bitmoji account, you can double-tap on a friend’s name in your conversation’s tab and then tap the sticker icon to see snapstreak stickers featuring your Bitmoji and your friend’s if they have one. If snapstreak stickers don’t appear at the top, simply type “streak” or “snapstreak” into the search field at the top to see all that are available. Tap any one of them to apply it to your snap.