You log into Snapchat. You see that wonderful fire emoji next to the name of your best friend, the number is growing daily, and you are enjoying your best ever Snapchat Streak (officially known as a Snapstreak). You've become a Snapchat master!

Then the worst thing happens unexpectedly: you lose your Snapchat Streak. But don't panic! This is how to get your Snapchat Streak back.

How Does a Snapchat Streak Work?

Snapchat 5-Day Streak Fire Emoji

Let's start with the basics. Some of you may not know exactly what a Streak entails or how it benefits users. You first need to understand these if you want to know how to get a Snapstreak back.

This isn't a solo effort by any means—streaks are a demonstration of your friendship. You have to rely on someone else. You can either overtly tell your friend you want to try for a Snapstreak or it might be an unspoken agreement. As soon as you both see that you're on a Streak, you'll likely want to keep it going.

A Streak begins when you and a friend send each other Snaps every 24 hours for three consecutive days. Once you've done this, a fire emblem will appear next to that contact's name, alongside a tally of how many days the Streak has lasted.

The rules are simple: you have to send a Snap to that person each day. They have to respond to your Snap within 24 hours. Chats don't count. Neither do Snaps sent from Memories or from Snapchat Spectacles. Video calls don't count either. However, videos sent through the Snap function do.

Sending a Snap to a group or adding one to My Story doesn't add towards a Streak.

What are the benefits of maintaining a Snapchat Streak? Bragging rights. That's essentially what you're aiming for here. It does give you an odd sense of achievement too, and it's a cool thing to show off how strong your friendship is.

Meanwhile, your Snapchat score is a numerical valuation of how dedicated you are to the social network. So the more you Snap, the higher your in-app score. That is individual.

What Do the Snapchat Streak Emojis Mean?

The Meaning of Emojis Beside Friends Names on Snapchat Explained

Firstly, note that these emojis are different from Trophies. However, the more Streaks you take part in, the more likely you are to get all of the Snapchat Trophies.

Go to the Chat function and you'll see your contacts. Emojis will accompany some of these names, if not all of them (depending on how many friends you've added and how frequently you communicate).

If you're consistently sending messages to one person, a smiley face will appear to the right of their name. This signifies that you're Best Friends. This will certainly appear if you're participating in a Snapstreak with someone.

How do you know you're on a Streak with a friend? A fire emoji will appear alongside their name plus the number of consecutive days the Streak has lasted. It should appear after the first day of consistently sending Snaps.

If your Streak reaches 100 days, Snapchat will congratulate you by putting the "100" emoji next to the flame symbol. Beyond that, it continues to list the number of consecutive days you've been on this current Streak.

No one's perfect, so one party will inevitably forget they've not sent a Snap within 24 hours of the previous one. Snapchat has you covered—it'll remind you by showing an hourglass emoji by your Streak number. If you see an hourglass, send a Snap!

If you're worried the other person has forgotten too, send them a message on Chat and hope they have notifications turned on.

How can you keep a Snap Streak going? The secret is not to get too precious about what you take a picture of. You won't find something meaningful to say every day, so don't feel too bad if you Snap the ceiling. Add text to explain that this is to maintain the Streak; alternatively, send a nice "thinking of you" message.

Make your Snaps more interesting using filters, lenses, and stickers, bringing variety to your pictures and videos.

Why Did You Lose Your Snapchat Streak?

Option to Restore Snapchat Streak That Ended With Carlos

The most obvious reason you've lost your Streak is that either you or your friend hasn't sent a Snap within the past 24 hours. But don't immediately blame the other person. Sometimes, it isn't anyone's fault.

If one of you has problems connecting to the internet, Snaps could fail to send; in such cases, Snapchat should tell you a Snap wasn't delivered.

You can try again, but make sure you've got internet connectivity. Otherwise, you'll have to send it at a later time (which is why it's a good idea to start a Streak when you know you'll be at home during certain hours every day).

There may also be an issue with hardware or operating systems. Sadly, if this carries on for a few days, your Streak won't be the only victim. Your Best Friend status will also vanish.

However, some report that even when both parties sent Snaps, the Streak nonetheless disappeared. No one really knows why, but most blame a bug within the app. Especially if you've just installed an update.

Watch out for other glitches within Snapchat, including Opened Snaps not disappearing from the Chat timeline.

Fortunately, in most of these instances, you can get your Streak back.

How to Recover a Snapchat Streak

Snapchat recognizes and appreciates its dedicated userbase, and that some things are out of our control. That's why there is a way you can get your Snap Streak reinstated.

To do so, you could either use the in-app Snapstreak Restore function or directly appeal to Snapchat.

Before we go into details, you should know that there are certain conditions to getting a Snapchat Streak back. Notably, you can't submit free Snapstreak restoration requests regularly. Don't get into the habit of losing your Streak and appealing to Snapchat—they won't fall for it. In fact, they may only do it once, depending on how generous the company feels.

Secondly, if numerous Streaks have disappeared, free restoration will likely only work with one contact. Certainly there's a limit of one username per submission. Make your longest-running Streak the priority.

Thirdly, the in-app Snapstreak Restore button only appears after a three-day Snapstreak, although Snapchat starts counting streaks after the first day. Also, the function is only available for 24 hours.

Using the In-App Snapstreak Restore Function

Open your Snapchat chat feed—if you recently had a Snapstreak expire with a friend, you should see a Restore button beside their name. It has an orange fire emoji. Click on the Restore button, check how many free restores you have left, tap Restore again to confirm the action, and then wait for Snapchat to restore your Snapstreak.

By default, Snapchat+ users get five free Snapstreak restores, while free accounts only get one free restore. Afterwards, each Snapstreak restore will cost $0.99.

Sending a Snapstreak Restoration Request

Requesting to Restore Snapchat Streak on Snapchat Support Page

Go to Snapchat Support. You'll see a list of potential problems; click on I Lost My Snapstreak > I lost my Snapstreak. How do I restore it?. The site will show you a basic troubleshooting guide demonstrating its in-app restore function—scroll down until you see the link to its Snapstreak restoration request form.

A contact form will load asking you for details about your account. This will require basic information, like your username, email address, cell number, and device, then specifics about the Streak.

Include as many details as you can. Fingers crossed you can remember how many consecutive days your Streak lasted for. If not, ask your friend. Failing that, estimate. There's space later in the form to say it's an approximation.

Similarly, if you know the exact date you lost your Streak, that's useful data. However, you can also say the issue occurred since you installed the most recent update.

The penultimate question concerns the hourglass emoji. This is to ascertain whether one of you simply forgot—in which case, Snapchat probably won't do anything to help.

Still, you can make your case clear in the final section, "What information should we know?" Be honest. Tell Snapchat if the app wouldn't load, a Snap just wouldn't send, or if your internet connection failed.

Send your request and wait for a reply. That is, if the company replies; sometimes, the reps don't.

Keep Your Snapstreaks Going

The social network won't reinstate your Streak if it just naturally waned. It doesn't matter if you were nearing 1,000 days. In this case, you'll have to use the in-app option to restore a streak.