Snapchat’s Snap Score is a great way to gauge someone’s activity on the app, but exactly how it’s calculated isn’t always obvious.
We know that it goes up as you send Snaps back and forth with others, but when are the points actually given – when a Snap is sent / received, or when it’s actually opened?
This is a fantastic question. In this article, I’ll be covering everything that you need to know!
Does Snap Score Still Increase If Your Snaps Are Not Opened?
Snapchat tracks when a Snap was received, and when it was actually opened separately.
As the sender, your Snap Score will go up immediately as soon as the Snap is sent. However, the receiver of the Snap will not see their Snap Score increase until the Snap is actually opened.
This means that unopened Snaps do not contribute to the receiver’s Snap Score, though the sender will receive additional points even if the receiver never actually opens it.
In fact, this is one way that people like to artificially inflate their Snap Score – they’ll send large numbers of photos or videos to celebrities or influencers, who are never going to open them.
This allows them to increase their Snap Score quickly, without bothering any of their friends or family!
Keep Snap Score Delays In Mind, However
Although Snapchat is supposed to update your Snap Score as soon as an eligible event occurs, it’s important to keep in mind that this doesn’t always happen straight away.
In fact, it’s possible for your Snap Score to not show any updates for several days, even if you’ve sent and opened plenty of Snaps during that time.
So, if you’re looking at your own or someone else’s Snap Score to monitor their activity – or you’re simply trying to check how much your score increases after sending Snaps, it’s important to keep this in mind.
While the score often does update immediately – and can accurately gauge a user’s activity over the long-term, it isn’t really that accurate for measuring changes in real-time.
Why Does Snap Score Increase For The Sender Straight Away, But Not The Receiver?
It’s kind of strange that the sender’s Snap Score will update straight away, but the receiver of the photo or video does not see their Snap Score increase until they open it.
So, why does this happen?
If you think about it, the Snap Score is meant to be a way to measure a user’s activity on their platform – a gauge for their total usage of Snapchat since the creation of their account.
If someone is not opening Snaps, they aren’t really using the app – so it doesn’t make sense for their Snap Score to go up.
After all, if your Snap Score went up simply when you received Snaps from someone, it could go up even if you no longer were using Snapchat at all – which would be very confusing to anyone that stumbled upon your profile!
Additionally, this could be used maliciously to artificially increase someone’s Snap Score against their wishes.
Some people consider a high Snap Score to be a red flag, so this is certainly something that many people will want to avoid!
What Else Increases Snap Score?
So far, we know that your Snap Score increases both when you send a Snap, as well as when you open one. This is true regardless of whether the Snap is a photo, or a video.
But what else increases your Snapchat Score?
The truth is, nobody knows for sure, except Snapchat themselves – who have yet to confirm the exact way that it’s calculated. In fact, they specifically state it’s “super-secret” on their documentation page!
However, it’s believed that these things can also increase your Snap Score:
- Posting things to your Snapchat Story.
- Adding new friends.
- Watching videos in the ‘Discover’ section.
- The length of any SnapStreaks you have running.
- Returning to the app after a period of not using it for a while.
It should be noted that messages do not count towards your Snap Score – which may be why you can’t get the heart emoji to show up just by chatting, either!
Conclusion
While the sender’s Snap Score will go up as soon as the Snap is sent, the receiver’s Snap Score will only increase after it has been opened.
This is likely because the Snap Score is meant to measure user activity, not just how many Snaps they receive in total.
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful, and that it’s answered all of your questions.
If you have any questions either about Snapchat or their Snap Score itself, ask them below and I’ll be happy to answer.
Wishing you the best,
– James McAllister