How to Pin Someone on Snapchat: Chats and #1 Best Friend

When your Chat screen fills up, the people you message most can slide down the list in a matter of hours. Pinning keeps them at the top, which I love for family, a business partner or the one client who always needs a quick answer. It's a small change that saves a lot of scrolling.

The confusing part is that Snapchat has two different things people call pinning. One pins a conversation to the top of your Chat screen. The other pins a friend as your #1 Best Friend, and that's a Snapchat+ feature. I'll walk through both, using Snapchat's own help articles, so you know which one you're looking at.

Pin someone to the top of your Snapchat Chat screen

This is what most people want: a friend or group that stays at the top of your chats.

1. Swipe right from the Camera to open the Chat screen.
2. Press and hold the friend's name or the group you want to pin.
3. Tap Chat Settings.
4. Tap Pin Conversation.

The conversation jumps to the top and stays there, even when newer messages arrive from other people.

How many people you can pin on Snapchat

According to the help article, you can pin up to 3 conversations to the top of your Chat screen. A pinned conversation can be a single friend or a group, so if you need more than three people within easy reach, a group chat for the extras is a handy workaround.

Does Snapchat tell someone you pinned them?

No. The help article says Snapchatters are not notified when you pin a conversation with them. Pinning is purely for your own screen. Nobody sees a badge, a message or any change on their side.

Pinning on Snapchat for Android users

Here's the detail that trips up a lot of readers. Snapchat's help article says pinning conversations is only available on iOS for now. So if you're on an Android phone and can't find Pin Conversation in Chat Settings, you haven't missed anything; the official help says the option isn't there yet.

What you can do on Android is lean on the way Snapchat orders chats. According to its help article, the Chat screen orders friends by how often you keep in touch and who has messaged you most recently. The people you talk to most tend to stay near the top on their own.

Pin someone as your #1 Best Friend on Snapchat

This is the other kind of pinning, and it works differently. Pin as your #1 Best Friend is a Snapchat+ feature, so you'll only see it if you're a Snapchat+ member.

1. Go to the Chat screen or the Send To screen.
2. Press and hold your friend's name.
3. Tap Pin as your #1 Best Friend.

Snapchat's help article says you can pin only one #1 Best Friend at a time, and only you can see who you pinned. If your pinned friend is also on Snapchat+ and pins you back, you both get a Best Friend Emoji on your Chat feed and on your Friendship Profiles.

Friend emojis and hearts have their own meanings, and they change as your friendship does. My guide to what the red and yellow hearts mean on Snapchat decodes the most common ones.

Pinning a conversation vs pinning a #1 Best Friend on Snapchat

	Pin Conversation	Pin as #1 Best Friend
Where it shows	Top of your Chat screen	Your Chat feed and Friendship Profile
How many	Up to 3	One at a time
Who sees it	Only you	Only you, unless they pin you back
Devices	iOS, per the help article	Snapchat+ members

Neither one is the same as your Best Friends list, which Snapchat builds automatically from how often you chat and Snap. If you're curious how that list works and who can see it, my guide to the Snapchat Best Friends list explains it.

Unpin someone on Snapchat

A quick word on privacy, since readers often ask me this. Because only you can see your pins, they're a safe way to organise your chats without anyone reading anything into it. Nobody finds out they've been pinned, or unpinned, from the Pin Conversation option.

To unpin a conversation, follow the same steps you used to pin it: press and hold the pinned friend or group, tap Chat Settings, then tap Unpin Conversation. It drops back into the normal order of your Chat screen. For a #1 Best Friend, press and hold their name again and look for the option to change or remove the pin; menus vary by app version.

Using Snapchat pins for a small business or creator account

If you use Snapchat to talk to customers, collaborators or a team, pins are a simple way to keep the important threads in view. A few ideas that work well:

• Pin the group chat you use with your team or co-hosts, so updates never get buried.
• Pin your most active collaborator during a launch, then unpin when the project wraps.
• Keep one pin free for whoever needs you most this week, and swap it as things change.

If you can't pin someone on Snapchat

• Check your phone. The help article says conversation pinning is only available on iOS for now.
• Check you already have three pinned. Unpin one to make room.
• Update the app, since older versions may not show Chat Settings in the same place.
• For the #1 Best Friend option, check that you're a Snapchat+ member, since it's part of Snapchat+.

Frequently asked questions

How do I pin someone on Snapchat?

Swipe right to open the Chat screen, press and hold the friend or group, tap Chat Settings, then tap Pin Conversation. The conversation stays at the top of your Chat screen.

How many conversations can I pin on Snapchat?

Snapchat's help article says you can pin up to 3 conversations to the top of your Chat screen.

Does the other person know I pinned them?

No. Snapchat says Snapchatters are not notified when you pin a conversation with them.

Why can't I pin someone on Snapchat on Android?

Snapchat's help article says pinning conversations is only available on iOS for now, so the option may not appear on Android.

What does pinning someone as your #1 Best Friend do?

It's a Snapchat+ feature that lets you pin one friend at a time. Only you can see who you pinned, and if they pin you back you both get a Best Friend Emoji.