What Does Hourglass Mean on Snapchat?

If you’re a frequent Snapchat user and have several friends you share snaps with, you may sometimes see an hourglass emoji next to their name in the chat tab. Unlike some other emojis on the app, this one has a specific meaning you shouldn’t overlook. Curious to know what it is? Keep reading as we discuss what is the hourglass emoji and its meaning on Snapchat.

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Hourglass Emoji on Snapchat: What Does it Mean?

Snapchat shows an hourglass emoji that looks like this ⌛ when your Snapstreak is about to expire. Since sending Snaps is Snapchat’s iconic feature, the app encourages you to send Snaps to your friends regularly with Snapstreaks. You may already know that your streak shows up as a fire emoji 🔥 and a number telling you how long your streak has been going.

The hourglass emoji acts like a warning sign to tell you that your streak is about to expire and that you should send a Snap to your friend as soon as possible to keep it going.

How Long Do You Have After Hourglass Emoji Appears

When you spot an hourglass emoji next to one or more friends’ conversations, it is a call for action to send them a Snap right away. If your hands are full right now, you have about four hours before your streak ends. This is not an official figure from Snapchat, as they don’t mention how much time you have left once this emoji shows on your screen.

How to Remove the Hourglass Emoji from a Chat

Now you already have an idea that the emoji shows up when your streak is about to expire but how do you get rid of it now that it is here? Let us explore some of the solutions to remove the hourglass emoji from the chat tab.

1. Create and Send a Snap

The obvious solution is to send your friend a Snap to continue your streak especially if it is a close friend of yours and you both have been keeping your streak going on for a while now.

1. To take a Snap, tap on the camera icon next to your friend’s name.
2. Tap the shutter button at the bottom to capture a photo, or press and hold it to take a video.
3. Add effects, filters, and texts according to your preference, then tap on the Send button at the bottom right corner.

2. Send Snaps to Multiple Friends

If you’ve had a busy day and your streak with multiple friends is about to expire, then here’s how to send the same Snap to all of them at once.

1. On Snapchat, tap on the camera icon from the bottom toolbar.
2. Capture a photo or a video and tap on Send To.

3. Now, choose your friends whose names have an hourglass emoji next to it.
4. Lastly, tap on the blue send button at the bottom right corner to keep your streak going.

3. Turn on Snapstreak Reminders

Snapchat+ users can turn on Snapstreak reminders, which will alert them one hour before their streak expires, proving to be helpful for lazy individuals. This alert can be enabled for specific friends or whomever you have an ongoing Snapstreak.

Follow these steps to enable Snapstreak reminders.

1. On Snapchat, tap on your profile icon in the top left corner.
2. Tap on the Snapchat+ option under your profile.

3. Scroll down to Snapstreak Reminders and tap on it.
4. Turn on the toggle for friends you wish to receive an alert for before your Snapstreak ends with them.

4. Wait and End Snapstreak with Your Friend

If you are like me and don’t care about your Snapstreak or don’t use the app that often, you can just do nothing and wait for the emoji to go away.

Doing so will end the Snapstreak and you will have to start from the beginning. This will also remove the fire emoji when your Snapstreak ends.

Restore Your Snapstreak on Snapchat

In case you do miss out on the hourglass warning, and your streak goes away then worry not as there is still one saving grace. You can restore your lost Snapstreak with ease, as you will start seeing a “Restore” icon next to chats you’ve lost streaks with. This way, you can recover streaks that expired anytime in the last 48 hours. This feature was earlier limited to just Snapchat Plus subscribers but is now available to all users for free.

Even if you’re like me and don’t Snapchat daily, some streaks might be important to your friends than you. So if you have friends who are streak-keepers then make sure to send then a quick Snap when you spot the hourglass emoji.

Besides this, if you are confused about other emojis on the app, you can learn what each of the Snapchat emojis mean. If this article helped to save your Snapstreak then let us know in the comments.