What Is Hourglass on Snapchat and How Long Does It Last

Sending and receiving Snaps is the essence of Snapchat. And to ensure this exchange continues, Snapchat has certain safeguards in place. But then, why do you see an hourglass emoji on Snapchat from time to time? And what does it mean?

Snapchat has certain emoji icons that help indicate certain things. One of these is the hourglass icon on Snapchat. And while most Snapchat emoji icons are customizable, this one is fixed. On that note, let us look at what it means and how long the hourglass icon lasts on Snapchat.

What Does the Hourglass Mean on Snapchat

To keep your Streaks going on Snapchat, you must send and receive a Snap within 24 hours. However, on the days you forget about sending that Snap, or if you accidentally send the Snap as a chat, it will not count towards the Streak. When this happens, an hourglass icon will become visible in front of the relevant contact, informing you that your Streak is about to expire and immediate action is required.

How Long Does the Hourglass Icon Last on Snapchat

The duration of the hourglass emoji is roughly visible for 4 hours until the streak is about to expire. This means you will see the regular fire emoji in front of the user for about 20 hours, post which it will convert to an hourglass icon. However, the hourglass duration is still a topic of debate, 4 hours is only a rough estimate.

Moreover, the only way you can remove the hourglass icon on Snapchat is by sending a Snap or, if you do not want to continue with the Streak, wait it out until the Streak expires.

Can You Avoid the Hourglass Icon on Snapchat

Now that we know what the hourglass means on Snapchat and how long it lasts, let us look at three ways to help you avoid seeing it altogether on Snapchat.

Note: If you let the Streak expire, the hourglass icon will no longer appear. However, if you have maintained the streak, continue with the below-mentioned ways.

1. By Sending Snaps

Your interactions with your friends are usually dependent on Snaps. And exchanging these Snaps at least once a day, every day can help keep the hourglass icon at bay. If you’re unsure how to do it, follow the below steps to send a Snap to your friend on Snapchat.

Tip: If you have more than one regular friend, consider sending that Snap to everyone at once on Snapchat.

Step 1: Open Snapchat and tap on the Chat icon.

Step 2: Go to the relevant contact and tap on the camera icon in front of it.

Step 3: Take the Snap. Once the option is available, tap on the Send icon.

This will instantly send the Snap to the selected contact. This should immediately remove the hourglass icon. If that doesn’t work, ask your friend to send you a Snap back and see if that does the trick. You can spruce up your Snaps by unlocking the butterflies lens on Snapchat.

2. Maintain a Snapchat Streak

If you regularly send Snaps to someone on Snapchat for 3 consecutive days, it will start a Streak on Snapchat. As mentioned before, an hourglass icon will be visible once this Streak is about to expire. So, regularly send and receive a Snap and maintain this Snapchat Streak.

You can set a timer on your phone to remind you to send a Snap regularly and ask your friend to do the same to keep the Streak going. Or, if you’re a Snapchat Plus subscriber, enable Snapstreak reminders from the profile options.

Also Read: How to get your Snapchat Streak back

3. Creating a Shortcut

If you have certain close friends that you frequently interact with, add them together by creating a shortcut. This way, whenever you see the hourglass icon, use the Shortcut to send the relevant contacts a Snap quickly. Please note you can only add up to 200 contacts per Shortcut, so you might need to create another one if your regular friend list exceeds that. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Open the Snapchat app and take the Snap. Then, tap on Send To.

Step 2: Once the Send To page opens, tap on the + icon.

Step 3: Tap on OK if prompted.

Step 4: From the list of users, select the ones you interact with daily.

Tip: You can also add Snapchat Groups to the Shortcut, although they won’t count.

Step 5: Once all the contacts have been added, select an emoji for the group.

Step 6: Then, tap on Create Shortcut to finish the process.

Step 7: Once you go back to the Send To page, tap on the emoji icon to open the newly created Shortcut.

Step 8: Select the Shortcut participants you would like to send the Snap to.

Step 9: Then tap on Send.

This will instantly send the Snap to all the selected contacts in the Shortcut on Snapchat. This should also remove the hourglass icon in the Chat window on Snapchat.

FAQs About Snapchat’s Hourglass Icon

Understanding the Hourglass Icon

In most cases, seeing the hourglass icon on Snapchat is never a good thing. So, we hope this article helped you better understand what it stands for and how you can get rid of it. If you no longer wish to see the hourglass icon, consider deleting those friends from your Snapchat. This will remove those friends and, by proxy, the hourglass icon as well.