The quickest way to delete a friend from Snapchat
Open Snapchat and go to the Friends page by tapping the person icon at the bottom. Find the person you want to remove, press and hold their name until a menu appears, then tap "Remove Friend." That person will no longer see your Stories or receive your Snaps, and you won't see theirs. The deletion happens when ready — Snapchat does not send them a notification that you removed them.
If you cannot find the person in your Friends list, they may have already deleted you, or you may need to scroll down to see inactive friends. Snapchat keeps people you have not messaged recently at the bottom of the list.
Key Takeaways
- Removing a friend takes three taps: press and hold their name, then select "Remove Friend" from the menu.
- The person you remove will not receive a notification, but they may notice they can no longer see your Stories or send you Snaps.
- You can still message someone after removing them as a friend, though they may not see your message if they have blocked you in return.
- Blocking is different from removing: blocking prevents someone from contacting you at all, while removing just takes them off your Friends list.
What the person you remove can and cannot see
Once you remove someone, they cannot see your Stories, and any Snaps you send will not reach them. If your account is set to public, they can still find your profile and see your public content, but they lose the ability to message you directly or see your private Stories.
The person may figure out you removed them by trying to send you a Snap and seeing an error, or by noticing your Stories have disappeared from their feed. However, Snapchat does not tell them directly that you removed them, the way it does with some other platforms.
Removing versus blocking: which one you need
Removing a friend and blocking are two separate actions with different results. When you remove someone, they stay in your chat history and can still try to contact you — they just cannot see your Stories or send you Snaps that reach you. When you block someone, they cannot message you, call you, or see your profile at all.
Use Remove Friend if you straightforward want to stop sharing Stories with someone or reduce contact. Use Block if someone is harassing you or you want to cut off all communication. You can unblock someone later, but unblocking does not automatically re-add them as a friend.
How to find someone you want to remove
Your Friends list is organized by how recently you have communicated with them. People you Snap with frequently appear at the top, while inactive friends drop to the bottom. If you have many friends, you may need to scroll down to find someone you have not messaged in a while.
If you cannot find the person at all, try searching for them by tapping the search icon and typing their username. If their profile does not appear, they may have deleted their account or changed their username. If their profile appears but they are not in your Friends list, you may have already removed them, or they may have removed you first.
What happens to your chat history after you remove someone
Removing a friend does not delete your chat history with them. Your old messages and Snaps remain in your chat thread, and you can still read them. The person you removed can also still see the conversation on their end — removing them as a friend does not erase their copy of your chats.
If you want to delete a specific conversation, you can swipe left on the chat thread and tap the trash icon. This removes the conversation from your inbox but does not affect what the other person sees. To fully erase a conversation from both sides, you would need to delete individual messages, which Snapchat allows only within a short time window after sending.
Removing someone versus leaving a group chat
If you want to stop seeing messages from a group, you can leave the group chat without removing the individual members as friends. Swipe left on the group chat and tap "Leave Chat." You will no longer receive messages from that group, but the other members can still see you as a friend and send you individual Snaps.
Leaving a group chat is different from removing the people in it. If you remove someone as a friend, you are removing them from your entire Friends list, not just from one conversation. You can leave a group and still be friends with everyone in it.
How to re-add someone after removing them
If you remove someone by mistake or change your mind, you can add them back. Search for their username, tap their profile, and select "Add Friend." They will receive a friend request notification, and once they accept, you will be friends again. Your old chat history will still be there.
If the person has blocked you, you will not be able to send them a friend request. If they removed you first and you want to be friends again, you can still send them a request — they will see it as a new request, not a re-add.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the person know I removed them?
Snapchat does not send a notification when you remove someone. However, they may realize it when they notice your Stories have disappeared from their feed or when they try to send you a Snap and it does not go through. There is no way for them to know for certain unless they check your profile directly.
Can I remove someone without them seeing my old messages?
No. Removing a friend does not delete your chat history on their device. They can still see all the messages and Snaps you sent them before you removed them. If you want to erase a message, you must delete it individually within a short time after sending it.
What is the difference between removing and blocking?
Removing a friend takes them off your Friends list but leaves your chat history intact and allows them to contact you. Blocking prevents them from messaging you, calling you, or seeing your profile. Blocking is stronger and is used when you want to cut off all contact with someone.
Can I remove someone from a group chat without removing them as a friend?
You cannot remove a specific person from a group chat, but you can leave the group yourself. If you want to stop seeing messages from one person, you would need to block them or remove them as a friend entirely, which affects all your interactions with them, not just the group.
If I remove someone, can they still see my profile?
If your account is private, they cannot see your profile after you remove them. If your account is public, they can still find and view your profile, but they cannot send you Snaps or see your Stories. You can change your privacy settings in Snapchat's settings menu.