The seemingly random emoji next to your friends' names on Snapchat actually aren't random at all — they're Snapchat's way of helping you keep track of your relationships.

The app started suggesting emoji out of nowhere — random pictograms users had rarely, or never used before. For me, this meant Instagram was suddenly prompting me to reply with the 🧣.

Those emojis are anything but random. In fact, they're Snapchat's way of helping you keep track of your relationships. Each emoji has a different meaning, and serves as a reminder of who you snap ...