Snapchat has replaced the Best Friends list, which shows the person that users are exchanging snaps with the most, with new Friend Emojis.
Users will be able to see the Friend Emojis on the snaps that they receive from their friends, with each emoji coming with a specific meaning.
The Gold Heart emoji means that the friend that sends snaps to you the most is also the friend that you send snaps to the most.
The Grimace emoji means that the friend you send snaps to the most is also who the friend sends snaps to the most.
The Smile emoji means that the friend is one of the people that you send snaps to the most.
The Sunglasses emoji means that one of your friends that you send snaps to the most is also among the friends that the person sends snaps to the most.
The Smirk emoji means that you are one of the friends that the person sends snaps to the most, but that person is not among the friends that you send snaps to the most.
The Fire emoji means that you and that friend have been sending snaps to each other for a total number of consecutive days as shown by the number beside the icon.
Before the replacement of the Best Friends list with these new Friend Emojis, a user and all the people that have that person on their contacts list can look up the user's profile and find out the top three people that the user sends snaps to the most, with no method to turn off the feature. With Friend Emojis, only users will be able to see the emojis beside the names in his or her contacts list, which means that nobody else will know who users are sending the most snaps to.
Snapchat, however, did not widely publicize the release of the Friend Emojis, instead hiding the instructions for the new feature within the Discover section of the messaging app.
"Starting today, a bunch of emojis will be popping up in your Snapchat friends list," said Snapchat in the announcement for the Friend Emojis. "No, they weren't just our favorite ones (shout out to the poop emoji), they actually mean something super-important - they break down your whole squad."
The Friend Emoji feature looks to show users who their best friends are. However, there is the possibility that the feature will instead ruin friendships, as some users may wonder why he or she is not among a friend's best friends list. In addition, jealousy and competition may come into play as users look to gain the attention of their friends with their snaps.
