It seems everyone is using this Snapchat feature, but never talk about it: streaks. Snapchat streaks are a feature where a number will show up next to someones name based on how many consecutive days the users have been “snapping.” Snapchat released the feature back in 2016, but why are people addicted to sending streaks and why is a simple concept so hard to keep up with?

Steaks are only official after three days of sending photos, and text chat does not count towards a streak, but how do people go about trying to start a streak?

“I mostly just have them with people I talk to everyday and I don’t directly ask people for streaks,” Huggler said. “I’ll usually slide up on someone’s story if they are offering, or if I wanna talk to someone I’ll just start up a conversation and the streak just happens naturally.”

Huggler prefers having streaks with people she talks to daily, but others have streaks with people that they don’t talk to on the regular. These choices are both socially acceptable, but they boil down to what each user prefers and can even depend on the day.

“I try to talk to all of them, but there are a lot of times when I just send one picture and that’s all I send to them for the day,” Karellas said.

Having a streak seems pretty simple, sending one photo a day increases the number shownnext to the persons name on Snapchat. If a snap hasn’t been sent in 24 hours, an hourglass emoji is shown to alert the snappers to send one before the streak ends.

Streaks can reach larger milestones as well. After 100 days of consecutive snapchatting, a one hundred emoji is shown instead of the number. This higher number is celebrated.

“I don’t really know,” Karellas said. “It’s just pretty cool to think you have snapchatted someone for 100 days straight.”

Losing a streak can be devastating for some and can start fights if done on purpose; this raises concern about society and why people get angry over sending one photo in a 24-hour time span. If a streak was accidently lost or Snapchat has a bug that causes a streak to end, contacting Snapchat support can help resolve the issue and get the streak back. Losing a streak with a large number can be annoying knowing the amount of snapping done to keep it going.

“I get upset, but I get over it pretty quick and we just start a new one,” Huggler said. “It’s not a big deal.”

Keeping streaks can be hard for some people who don’t go on their phone frequently or forget to Snapchat people. Some find it’s easy, after all it’s just one photo.

“I find it somewhat easy to keep streaks because as long as you send one picture to your streaks everyday you can keep them,” Karellas said.

At the end of the day, Snapchat introduced the streaks feature to promote others to look forward to talking to their friends. Some people have a harder time keeping up with streaks due to personal preference but others find it amusing how high of a streak they can get. It is pretty weird how the world got addicted to taking time out of their day to send one photo a day, what could one do with that wasted time?