What Is the X Icon Next to a Name on Snapchat?

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What the X icon means and why someone might have unfriended you unexpectedly

Co-authored by Hannah Madden

Last Updated: October 15, 2025 Fact Checked

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What does the X mean on Snapchat?

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Can you still message someone with an X next to their name?

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Getting Rid of the X Icon

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Why would someone unfriend me on Snapchat?

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You go to send that cute guy you’ve been talking to a Snap, but now there’s an X icon next to his name. You two were just chatting last night—what gives? The X icon is a feature that Snapchat rolled out to tell you who’s unfriended you or who isn’t on your friends list anymore. For more info about the X icon, including how to get rid of it and why someone might unfriend you, read on.

Things You Should Know

An X icon on Snapchat means that the person has unfriended you or you haven’t accepted their friend request yet.
Your messages and Snaps won’t go through until they’ve added you back or you’ve accepted their friend request.
To get rid of the X icon, you can either add them as a friend or block their account.

Section 1 of 4:

What does the X mean on Snapchat?

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On Snapchat, the X means that person is not on your friends list. If you were friends on Snapchat with this person before, it likely means that they unfriended you. But if you haven’t ever had this person on your friends list, the X means that they’ve sent you a request that you haven’t accepted yet.^{[1]
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- Keep in mind that an X icon does not mean this person has blocked you, it just means they’ve unfriended you. To find out if someone has blocked you, try searching for their name in the app. If they’ve blocked you, their username won’t pop up.^{[2]
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Section 2 of 4:

Can you still message someone with an X next to their name?

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You can message someone with an X icon, but it will say “Pending.” If someone isn’t on your friends list anymore, they can’t see your message until they’ve added you back. If you try to send them a Snapchat or a message, you’ll see a gray “Pending” sign underneath their name.^{[3]
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- If they add you back, though, your messages will go through.

Section 3 of 4:

Getting Rid of the X Icon

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Add the person as a friend on Snapchat. Click on the name of the person with the X icon. If they’ve requested to be your friend, Snapchat will give you the option to accept or reject the friend request. If they’ve unadded you, you can request to be their friend again by clicking +Add next to their username.^{[4]
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- Once you accept their friend request (or they accept yours), the X icon will go away.
If you don’t know this person and you don’t want them in your friends list anymore, click on the X icon. From there, you can either block them on Snapchat or report their account.^{[5]
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Section 4 of 4:

Why would someone unfriend me on Snapchat?

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They were scared of hurting your feelings. Maybe they weren’t really feeling the conversation, but they didn’t know how to tell you. Or, maybe there wasn't any romantic attraction on their end, but they didn’t want to make you upset. People will often ghost others because it’s easier than having a tough conversation that might make you feel hurt or angry.^{[6]
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- Respond to ghosting by remembering how awesome you are, then moving on. When someone unfriends you without even talking to you about it, it says more about them than it does about you.
Maybe they really did like you, but that was scary to them. If you two had been flirting or talking romantically for a while, they might have unfriended you because they weren’t ready for a relationship and they didn’t know how to tell you.^{[7]
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Yes, it’s true—when you suddenly see an X icon appear next to someone’s name, there’s a chance that they were caught by their romantic partner. People will sometimes pretend to be single online, but most people view that as cheating. They may have unfriended you to avoid a fight with their partner or because they got caught.^{[8]
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It was a convenient way to stop talking. Technology, and especially apps like Snapchat, make it super easy to stop talking to one person and move onto the next. If you two have never met up in person or you’ve only talked IRL a couple of times, they may have ghosted you just because they don’t think of it as a real relationship yet.^{[9]
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- Unfortunately, ghosting has become pretty common in today’s era of online dating and online friendships. To know you’ve been ghosted for certain, try reaching out one last time to see if they’ll respond.