Snapchat Solar System: Friend Ranking & Privacy Guide 2025

Is Your Team’s Digital Communication Strategy Missing Critical Insights?

Social media interactions among team members can reveal important patterns about workplace communication and collaboration. Snapchat’s Solar System feature, available only to Snapchat+ subscribers, ranks friendships based on interaction frequency—and it’s becoming relevant in professional contexts where teams use consumer platforms for networking.

What exactly does this feature do, and why might business leaders need to understand it?

What Is Snapchat’s Solar System Feature?

Snapchat’s Solar System assigns each of your closest friends a planet position based on how often you interact with them. Available only through Snapchat+ subscription, the feature displays your top eight friends as planets orbiting around you.

Here’s how it works: the person you snap and chat with most becomes Mercury, your second-most frequent contact becomes Venus, and so on through Neptune. The system updates based on recent activity patterns, not your entire Snapchat history.

How It Works

When you’re a Snapchat+ subscriber, you’ll see a ‘Best Friends’ badge with a gold ring on someone’s profile if they’re among your top eight contacts. Tapping this badge shows which planet you are in their Solar System. The system works both ways—you can see where others rank in your system, and where you rank in theirs.

Snapchat Solar System Planet Rankings Explained

Snapchat’s Solar System uses the real solar system’s planetary order to rank your top eight friends. Each planet in your “snap solar system” represents a specific friendship tier based on how often you interact. Here’s what each planet means when you see it in someone’s Snapchat friend profile:

Complete Snapchat Solar System Order

1. Mercury – Your #1 best friend on Snapchat (most snaps and chats exchanged)
2. Venus – Your second-closest Snapchat friend
3. Earth – Third position in your Snapchat friend rankings
4. Mars – Fourth most frequent Snapchat contact
5. Jupiter – Fifth place in your Snapchat solar system
6. Saturn – Sixth-ranked friend in interaction frequency
7. Uranus – Seventh position in your friend hierarchy
8. Neptune – Your eighth best friend (lowest tier still shown in solar system)

When you tap someone’s Best Friends badge and see “You are Earth in their Solar System,” this means you rank as their third-most frequent Snapchat contact. The planet assignment directly corresponds to your position in their personal snap solar system ranking.

Important Limitations

Planet assignments reflect interaction frequency, not actual friendship closeness. Someone might rank as your Mercury due to frequent work-related snaps, while a close friend you rarely message might not appear in your Solar System at all. Rankings also vary between users—you might be Mercury in one friend’s system but Mars in another’s.

Business Implications and Team Dynamics

Understanding Team Communication

For organizations where employees use Snapchat professionally, the Solar System can reveal communication patterns worth noting. However, drawing conclusions about team dynamics from social media rankings requires caution, since the data reflects platform-specific behavior rather than overall professional relationships.

Privacy in Professional Settings

The Solar System feature remains private to individual users, but it can still affect workplace dynamics. Employees might feel pressure to maintain certain ranking positions with colleagues, or awkwardness might arise when professional relationships don’t match social media interaction levels.

Cost and Accessibility Analysis

Subscription Details

Snapchat+ costs $3.99 per month, $21.99 for six months, or $39.99 annually. New users get a 7-day free trial. The subscription doesn’t remove ads—it only adds premium features like Solar System, custom app icons, and story rewatch indicators.

Activation Process

The Solar System feature is disabled by default for new Snapchat+ subscribers. To use it, go to the Snapchat+ feature management page and toggle it on. This opt-in approach gives users control over their privacy preferences from the start.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

When Solar System Doesn’t Appear

• Verify Snapchat+ subscription is active
• Check feature management settings to ensure Solar System is enabled
• Ensure you have established sufficient interaction history with friends
• Update the Snapchat app to the latest version

Inaccurate Rankings

• Rankings reflect recent interaction patterns, not overall relationship history
• The Friends badge indicates your place in your friend’s Solar System, but your friend isn’t present in your Solar System
• Different users may rank you differently based on their individual interaction patterns

Privacy Management

Users concerned about privacy can:

• Disable the Solar System feature entirely through Snapchat+ settings
• Adjust general privacy settings to limit friend discovery
• Be selective about accepting friend requests from professional contacts

Key Recommendations for Business Leaders

Social Media Policy Development

Organizations should establish clear guidelines about personal social media use in professional contexts. Address whether employees can add colleagues on personal platforms and how such connections might impact workplace relationships.

Privacy Education

Employees need training on social media privacy settings and professional boundary management. Many users don’t realize how their interaction patterns might be visible or interpreted by colleagues.

Alternative Communication Tools

Rather than relying on consumer social platforms for team communication, consider dedicated workplace tools that provide similar engagement insights without privacy concerns.

Future Considerations and Industry Impact

Gamification Trends

Snapchat’s solar system is part of a broader trend of gamification on social media, seeking to foster user engagement and retention. This approach is increasingly common across professional platforms, from LinkedIn’s connection insights to Microsoft Teams’ activity indicators.

Privacy Evolution

Snapchat Plus is supposed to be an upgrade enhancing the app but is really just purchasing our privacy. This perspective highlights ongoing debates about premium features that monetize personal relationship data.

Professional Platform Integration

As workplace communication tools evolve, similar features may appear in:

• Enterprise messaging platforms
• Project management tools
• Video conferencing solutions
• Team collaboration software

Implementation Best Practices

For Individual Users

1. Regular Privacy Audits: Review Solar System visibility settings quarterly
2. Professional Boundary Setting: Separate personal and professional Snapchat usage
3. Data Awareness: Understand what interaction data the feature uses and displays

For Organizations

1. Policy Development: Create guidelines for social media use in professional contexts
2. Training Programs: Educate teams about digital privacy and professional boundaries
3. Technology Monitoring: Stay informed about new features that might impact workplace dynamics

Conclusion

Snapchat’s Solar System feature offers insights into how social platforms quantify relationships through interaction data. For business leaders, understanding these tools helps in developing appropriate workplace social media policies and recognizing how consumer platform features might affect team dynamics.

The feature demonstrates the growing trend of gamifying personal relationships through data visualization. While primarily a consumer tool, its implications extend to professional environments where personal and workplace interactions intersect.

Organizations that understand these dynamics can better navigate the evolving landscape of digital communication, establish appropriate boundaries, and make informed decisions about workplace collaboration tools that respect both engagement and privacy.