What Do the Icons Mean on Snapchat: Received, Viewed, Sent, and More

Did you get a message on Snapchat that's now marked "Received?" Curious about the difference between "Received" and "Opened?" There are a plethora of icons that mean different things on the Chat page of Snapchat. They indicate when a Snap or Chat has been received, sent, screenshotted, and replayed. This wikiHow goes over what the various icons mean, including the red, blue, and purple squares.

Things You Should Know

Received means someone has sent you a Snap or Chat that you haven’t opened yet.
Red icons mean the Snap doesn’t have audio, while purple indicates it does have audio.
Blue icons refer to Chat text messages.

Section 1 of 6:

Received

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Received means you have an unopened Snap or Chat. If you’re just getting started on Snapchat (maybe you’ve just created your account), it can take a little while to learn all of the message icons. There are three icons that differentiate between the types of received messages:^{[1]
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- Red square — unopened Snap without audio
- Purple square — unopened Snap with audio
- Blue square — unread Chat

Section 2 of 6:

Viewed

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Viewed indicates that you have opened a Snap or Chat. There are four variants of the viewed icon.
- Red unfilled square — you viewed a Snap without audio
- Purple unfilled square — you viewed a Snap with audio
- Blue unfilled square — you viewed a Chat
- Gray unfilled square — a Snap or Chat possibly expired after pending

Section 3 of 6:

Sent

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Sent is when you have sent a Snap or Chat, but it hasn’t been viewed. There are four icons that represent when you’ve sent a picture, video, or chat:
- Red arrow — your sent Snap without audio hasn’t been viewed
- Purple arrow — your sent Snap with audio hasn’t been viewed
- Blue arrow — your sent Chat hasn’t been viewed
- Gray arrow — the user you sent a Snap or Chat to is not your friend

Section 4 of 6:

Opened

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Opened means your friend has viewed the Snap or Chat you sent. There are three opened icons:
- Red unfilled arrow — your sent Snap without audio has been viewed
- Purple unfilled arrow — your sent Snap with audio has been viewed
- Blue unfilled arrow — your sent Chat has been viewed

Section 5 of 6:

Screenshot

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Screenshot means someone has taken a screenshot of your Snap or Chat. There are three screenshot icons:
- Red unfilled arrow on top of a left-facing arrow — the person you sent a Snap without audio took a screenshot of it
- Purple unfilled arrow on top of a left-facing arrow — the person you sent a Snap with audio took a screenshot of it
- Blue unfilled arrow on top of a left-facing arrow — the person you sent a Chat took a screenshot of it

Section 6 of 6:

Replay

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Replay means the user has replayed your Snap. There are two types of replays:
- Red arrow going in a circle — the user replayed your Snap without audio
- Purple arrow going in a circle — the user replayed your Snap with audio