When Did Snapchat Bestfriend Planets Start Using Colors?

I got hooked on the colorful friend circles the moment they popped up, and from what I tracked, Snapchat began coloring the so-called friend "planets" when they integrated Bitmoji and friendship data into a more visual profile system. The major visual refresh that made planets colorful rolled out broadly between 2019 and 2020. Before that the Best Friends feature relied on text and small emojis; after the redesign those circular, planet-like friend icons gained hues to reflect the new friendship profiles, personalized Bitmoji accents, and in-app animations.

Because Snapchat likes to test features, not everyone saw the color shift at once — sometimes it appeared behind staged feature flags or in one platform build before another. The colors function more as design language than as an exact metric: they help highlight closeness, shared stickers or emojis, and sometimes streak-related badges, but Snapchat has changed colors and meanings in subsequent updates. For practical use, treat them as an aesthetic cue rather than a precise friendship score. I still enjoy spotting a familiar color combo and smiling at the tiny little identity it gives to someone I snap with daily.

I've kept an eye on Snapchat's UI over the years, and the shift to colored "planet"-style friendship icons felt gradual but deliberate. Back when Snapchat first had a Best Friends list it was mostly text and simple emojis; the colorful, orbit-like friends visuals showed up later as Snapchat leaned into Bitmoji integration and more graphical friendship profiles. The big change that introduced those vibrant planet rings and hues came with the rollout of Friendship Profiles and deeper Bitmoji/Map integration around late 2019 into 2020, when Snapchat started experimenting with more colorful, personalized visuals to represent relationships.

Because Snapchat runs staggered updates and A/B tests, some people saw colored planets earlier or later depending on device and region. The colors themselves aren't a hidden ranking code — they're design choices tied to Bitmoji themes, friend streaks, and sometimes the context of the friendship profile (shared emojis, rings, or special icons). Over time Snapchat tweaked which interactions get bright rings, animated glows, or muted tones, so what you saw in early 2020 might have been refined by later updates.

If you care about how your own friends look, the practical takeaway is that the colors started showing up in earnest around that late-2019/2020 Friendship Profile era, then evolved through 2020–2021 with smaller visual updates. Personally, I loved how it made the friends list feel less clinical and more playful — it turned a little UI detail into a tiny, satisfying way to recognize people I snap with most.

Short version: the colorful best-friend planets showed up after Snapchat moved to visual Friendship Profiles and deeper Bitmoji/map integration, roughly during the late 2019 to 2020 timeframe. The feature's rollout was staggered — Snapchat often A/B tests visual updates — so timing depended on your device and update channel. Functionally the colors are part design, part status shorthand: they highlight streaks, shared emojis, and friendship profile flourishes, but Snapchat has adjusted which colors and effects mean what across subsequent updates. For me, the change made the friends list feel warmer and more playful, which I appreciated during long slumps of gray UI updates.