The Complete Guide to Unpinning Chats on Snapchat

With over 319 million daily active users, Snapchat has become a pivotal platform for messaging and visual communication among friends. One of Snapchat’s standout features is the ability to “pin” up to three conversations to the top of your chat list, keeping important message threads readily accessible.

However, constant access to pinned chats can also feel distracting or cluttered over time. So understanding how to properly unpin conversations is key to optimizing your Snapchat messaging experience.

In this comprehensive tech guide, we’ll explore Snapchat’s interface, pinning functionality, usage across devices, advanced capabilities, and how it compares with competitors—outlining everything you need to know about unpinning chats in Snapchat.

Demystifying Snapchat‘s User Interface

As a highly visual platform built around ephemeral messaging, Snapchat employs a unique user interface that new users often find confusing. Before learning how to pin and unpin conversations, it helps to understand how the main screens are structured.

Key Snapchat Screens

There are three main screens on Snapchat:

Camera: The camera is the landing screen when opening Snapchat. Here you can access lenses, take photos/videos, view stories, memories, and swipe over to the Chat and Profile screens.

Chat: Right-swiping from Camera brings you to Chat. This lists your message threads, with pinned chats at the top.

Profile: Tap your profile icon on Camera to access your Profile screen. This displays info like your username, number of friends/followers, trophy case and settings.

Now that we’ve mapped out Snapchat‘s main screens, we can dive deeper into pinning and unpinning chats.

Pinning & Unpinning Chats in Snapchat

Pinning conversations keeps up to three active message threads conveniently at the top of your chat list.

Overview of Pinning Chats

Here is a summary of how Snapchat‘s pinning feature works:

• You can pin up to three chats at once
• Pinned chats appear at the top with a thumbtack icon
• Chats are sorted chronologically underneath pinned ones
• Unpinning removes the pin and relegates the chat chronologically

Next we’ll explore step-by-step instructions for pinning and unpinning chats.

How to Pin Conversations

Pinning a conversation is simple:

1. Swipe to the Chat screen
2. Hold your finger on the chat you want to pin
3. Tap “Pin Conversation”

The chat will now stay pinned to the top of your chat list.

How to Unpin Conversations

Similarly, unpinning a chat just requires reversal of the above process:

1. Go to the Chat screen
2. Long press the pinned conversation
3. Tap “Unpin Conversation”

And voila! The chat is now unpinned and will fall into chronological order with your other conversations.

Let’s now explore pinning limitations and customizations.

Optimizing & Customizing Pinned Chats

Understanding Snapchat’s rules around pinned chats allows you to use them more effectively.

You Can Only Pin Up To 3 Chats

Snapchat allows you to pin a maximum of 3 conversations simultaneously. If you attempt to pin more than 3 chats, Snapchat will automatically unpin the oldest pinned conversation to make room for the new one.

Pinned Chat Limits Across Platforms

As we can see, Snapchat ties with WhatsApp at 3 maximum pinned chats but is less flexible than Messenger or Telegram.

Customizing Pinned Chat Emojis

Snapchat allows you to customize the emoji that appears next to each pinned chat‘s name. Here is how to change pinned chat emojis:

1. Press & hold on pinned chat
2. Tap emoji icon
3. Select new emoji

Custom emojis make important pinned conversations easy to differentiate at a glance.

Navigating Snapchat Across Devices

Snapchat is available across iOS, Android and tablet devices—each with minor navigation differences:

Using Snapchat on iPhone

The main Snapchat screens can be accessed on an iPhone as follows:

• Camera: Landing screen
• Chats: Swipe right from camera
• Profile: Tap profile icon on camera

iPhone users also get full access to Snapchat’s augmented reality lenses and filters.

Using Snapchat on Android

On Android devices, Snapchat’s screens can be accessed in the same way:

• Camera: Landing screen
• Chats: Swipe right
• Profile: Tap profile icon

Recent Android devices also fully support Snapchat’s AR capabilities.

Using Snapchat on Tablets

While Snapchat can be installed on tablets like iPads and Galaxy Tabs, the app is not optimized for larger screens. So core functions like the camera, chat and stories work but more advanced capabilities may be limited.

Notably, you cannot pin conversations on the tablet interface. But besides missing out on pinning, tablets otherwise provide a fully functional Snapchat experience.

Now let’s explore some of Snapchat’s advanced, lesser-known features.

Beyond Messaging: Snapchat’s Advanced Capabilities

While Snapchat is renowned for ephemeral messaging, the platform offers advanced creative tools, utilities, monetization capabilities and more beyond just communicating with friends.

Experimenting with AR Lenses & Filters

One major area Snapchat excels in is augmented reality "Lenses", enabled by state-of-the-art computer vision. Lenses overlay your selfies and videos with real-time special effects ranging from silly (rainbow vomiting) to beautiful (sparkles and light refractions).

Snapchat also features a deep library of artistic Filters that alter your photos/videos with custom graphics and stickers. Between Lenses and Filters, the possibilities for creatively embellishing your Snaps is endless.

Snapchat Trophies & Gamification

In the profile section, Snapchat awards you virtual trophies for completing different activities on the platform. With over 60 unique achievements spanning usage areas from snapping streaks to engaging with brands to submitting your own Lenses, trophy collecting adds a competitive gamification element to Snapchat.

Sharing Locations via Snap Map

Snap Map allows Snapchatters to publicly share their locations on a virtual map viewable by their friends. Beyond interfacing with your own social network, Snap Map lets you pivot the globe to major cities and events to uncover public Stories and Snaps shared by the people there.

Saving Content With Snapchat Memories

While core to Snapchat’s appeal is the impermanence of photos, videos and messages, Snapchat Memories lets you save content to the cloud before it expires. You can also use Memories to edit snaps and cobble together custom Stories from your saved snaps.

As we can see, Snapchat offers a multitude of features beyond just private chats. Now let’s analyze how Snapchat compares to rival messaging/social platforms.

Benchmarking Snapchat Against Competitors

Despite strong competition, Snapchat continues gaining traction, especially among younger demographics. But how exactly does Snapchat stack up to chief rivals like TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram? We’ll compare user bases, key differentiators and more.

Monthly Active Users Comparison

First let’s examine latest monthly active users (MAU) statistics across major messaging/social apps globally:

Monthly Active Users of Messaging/Social Apps in 2022

With over 363 million monthly active users, Snapchat solidly places in the top tier of messaging and social media platforms, outpacing Telegram while rivaling Instagram and trailing the Facebook-owned giants Messenger and WhatsApp.

However, Snapchat still leads among the coveted youth demographics. Over 90% of Snapchat users are between the ages of 13 and 24. The app’s fun, creative features resonate with young mobile natives.

Now let’s compare Snapchat’s key features versus chief competitor platforms:

Snapchat vs. Instagram

While Facebook has implemented Snapchat’s disappearing Stories format across its apps, Snapchat’s nemesis remains Instagram. However, Snapchat still differentiates itself through its AR Lenses and Gamification via trophies. Instagram compensates with its sprawling influencer culture and commerce capabilities.

Overall, Snapchat trends stronger with Western teenagers while Instagram maintains greater cultural ubiquity globally.

Snapchat vs. WhatsApp

WhatsApp dominates secure messaging while Snapchat rules fun visual communication. WhatsApp relies on phone numbers for finding contacts while Snapchat uses unique usernames.

WhatsApp focuses more on privacy and direct messaging rather than public sharing. Snapchat conversely emphasizes creativity features over privacy and security.

Snapchat vs. Telegram

Similar to WhatsApp, Telegram is praised for its encrypted messaging and supports self-destructing messages like Snapchat. However, Telegram prioritizes privacy and security while Snapchat concentrates more on augmented reality lenses/filters and overlaying visual effects on photos and videos for dynamic social sharing.

As we can see, Snapchat continues to differentiate itself from traditional messengers through ephemeral stories and playful AR capabilities—especially among younger demographics.

Now let’s conclude with best practices around managing your pinned Snapchat conversations.

Key Takeaways: Optimizing Your Pinned Snapchat Chats

To recap, here are the core insights to help thoughtfully manage your Snapchat pinned conversation:

🔸 You can pin up to 3 conversations for quick access

🔸 Custom emojis help distinguish different pinned chats

🔸 Pin conversations selectively to avoid overwhelm

🔸 Unpin chats you no longer need at the top

🔸 You can temporarily mute notifications of pinned chats

🔸 Recent Android/iOS devices fully support all Snapchat features

🔸 While you can use Snapchat on tablets, pinning doesn’t work

🔸 Consider upgrading to Snapchat+ for perks like re-pinning

We hope this comprehensive guide gives you maximum confidence for personalizing pinned conversations and mastering all Snapchat’s features across interfaces. Let us know if you have any other Snapchat questions!