Snapchat loves it when you spend time on it chatting and exchanging snaps with your friends.
The platform rewards you with Snapscores for sending, receiving, and adding snaps to your story. It also offers streaks to encourage daily snapping with friends. But besides these, it also offers a subtle feature that simplifies your snapping experience: the Recents list.
To encourage you to spend more time, it makes it easier for you to send snaps to your closest Snap buddies. So, when you capture a snap and try to send it to your friends, the app shows you a list of recent friends to choose from.
However, Snapchat features are known for their confusing nature, and the Recents list is no exception. The list is supposed to show you friends you actively chat or snap with. Yet, once in a while, it may even show you friends you haven’t ever spoken to.
Why does Snapchat put these friends on your Recent list? Is this because of a glitch? Or are there other conditions that make users appear on this list even if you have never spoken to them? Read on to get the answers.
What do Recents on Snapchat mean?
There are two places within the Snapchat app where you can see the Recents section. There is one Recents section that appears on the search screen. This section shows the users you have recently searched for.
The other Recents list appears right after you take a snap and are about to send it to your friends. To be clear, this is the list we are going to discuss in this blog.
Usually, this list contains the names of friends with whom you most often exchange snaps and texts, so you can easily send the snap to these friends. However, when the list starts showing friends you seldom talk with or have never talked with, the resulting confusion is only natural. Jump to the next section to know why Snapchat includes those friends on the list.
Why is someone showing up in your Snapchat Recents when you haven’t spoken to them?
The confusion surrounding the Recents list is because of a simple reason—a misconception of its meaning. The name “Recents” may make you think it has something to do with people you have recently snapped or chatted with. However, this is only partially true.
The reasons for the appearance of certain friends on the Recents list are not limited to snaps and texts. Some other interactions may also bring someone to the list. Let’s look at these reasons below.
Reason 1: They sent you a snap
You don’t always need to send someone a snap to add them to your Recents list. A friend can appear on the list even if they send you a snap. Snapchat considers any incoming or outgoing interaction between you two. So, even if you don’t reply to the snap they sent you, the friend can appear on the list because they sent you a snap.
NOTE: The friend will remain on the list even if they delete the snap after sending.
Reason 2: They texted you
Getting texts from a friend can have the same effect as getting snaps. So, if a person has recently sent you a message, they will appear on your Recents list regardless of whether you reply. As in the case of snaps, the user will remain on the list even if they delete the message after sending it.
Reason 3: They added you back (or vice versa).
As mentioned earlier, texts and snaps are not solely responsible for bringing users to your Recents list. A user can also show up on the list simply because you recently became friends with them. This can happen either way—whether you added them back or they added you.
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