Why Is His Snap Score Going Up? Does It Mean He's Cheating?

It's 1am. The Snap you sent him before bed still says Delivered. You open his profile, and the number under his name is higher than it was an hour ago. So you do the math you didn't want to do: he's on the app, he's snapping someone, and it isn't you.

That jump in your chest is real. The math, though, is built on a rule Snapchat never wrote down.

Short answer: A Snap Score goes up when someone sends Snaps, receives Snaps, or posts Stories, plus "a couple other factors" that Snapchat keeps secret. A rising score shows the account is active. It does not show who he is snapping, how many people, or whether he sent anything at all. He can receive fifty Snaps from a group chat without sending one.

We'll start with the version of this that hurts most, the score that moves while your Snap sits unopened. Then what Snapchat itself says the score counts, the ordinary ways it climbs, what the number can never tell you, and what to do with the worry tonight.

"His score went up but he hasn't opened my Snap"

This is the one that keeps people awake, so it gets a straight answer first.

A score can rise while the phone is in his pocket. Received Snaps are part of Snapchat's own description. So the picture in your head, him awake and choosing someone else's Snap over yours, is one possible story among several, and the number can't pick between them.

What Snapchat says the score counts

Less than you'd hope. Snapchat's Help Center covers the score in a three-sentence article, "What is a Snapscore?".

What it says. The score comes from "a super-secret, special equation". It "combines the number of Snaps you've sent and received". It also counts "the Stories you've posted". Plus "a couple other factors". And one thing people rarely quote: "There's no way to lower or reset your Snapscore".

What it leaves out. How many points a Snap is worth. Whether text chats count. Whether a Snap sent to ten people counts ten times. What those other factors are. How quickly the number updates.

Everything else you read about the score comes from users testing it, not from Snapchat. That includes four claims repeated on almost every page that ranks for this question.

Which matters at 1am, because the sums people do in their heads lean on exactly those claims.

Why his score can rise when he is not snapping you

There are seven ways the number moves. Only one of them is the one you're afraid of.

The last line is real, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. It is one line out of seven, and the score gives you no way to tell it from the others.

What the number can tell you, and what it can't

It can tell you that the account is in use, and that activity went up or down compared with before.

It can't tell you who the Snaps are with. Whether it's one person or twenty. Whether he sent Snaps or only received them. What was in them. Or when during the day it happened, with any precision.

People try to calculate anyway: "it went up 200, so that is 100 sent and 100 received". The arithmetic assumes a rule Snapchat never published, and it breaks as soon as a Story, a group Snap or the Snapchat+ multiplier is involved. A score is a counter, not a diary.

How you are able to see his score at all

Two facts from the Help Center explain why this question exists in the first place.

The score sits on a friend's profile. You can see the total for people you're friends with on Snapchat.

Snapchat+ shows the change. "As a Snapchat+ subscriber, you can see how much a friend's Snapscore has changed since the last time you checked it."

That second feature turns a number nobody looked at into something people check several times a day. If you notice yourself doing that, opening his profile before you've even put your glasses on, the checking has become the problem to solve, more than the number. That isn't a criticism. It's what a feature like that does to anyone who's already worried.

Does a rising Snap Score mean cheating?

No. It means Snapchat is being used.

Not a reason to worry: the score rises every day. It rose while he was away from you. It rose and he hadn't opened your Snap. He has a higher score than you.

A reason to talk, calmly: he says he no longer uses Snapchat, and it rises by hundreds a day. He turns the phone over whenever a Snap arrives. He has become guarded about the phone in general, not only this app. The explanation changes each time you ask. Or it comes with other changes: a new passcode, hidden notifications.

Read that second list again and you'll see it's about behavior around the phone. None of it is about the number. If you want the wider picture of what Snapchat shows and what it keeps closed, we cover Best Friends, Ghost Mode and disappearing messages in our Snapchat cheating guide.

Four things not to do with this worry

Late at night, each of these looks like a way to finally know. None of them is. Testing him with a fake message is no better, and we explain why a loyalty test proves little.

Logging into his Snapchat. Entering another adult's account without permission is unlawful in many places.

An app that promises to show who he snaps. Snapchat: "It is against our Terms of Service to use any unauthorized third-party apps or plugins". Accounts get locked for it.

Software on his phone. It can be a crime. See is it illegal to put spyware on your partner's phone.

Tracking the score hour by hour. It produces numbers and no answer, and it feeds the anxiety.

What to do instead

Put the phone down first, if you can. Nothing on this list works better at 1am than it will tomorrow.

The second line is the one people skip. "Your score went up 300 this week" starts an argument about Snapchat. "I've felt far from you lately" starts the conversation you actually need. If the talk turns to where the line is, try our 70 questions on what counts as cheating.

The dating app question is a separate one

A Snap Score and a dating profile are unrelated facts, and we only answer the second: whether a profile comes up. The free ways to check that second fact come first in our guide to free methods for finding hidden dating profiles.

CheatEye checks whether a dating profile matching your partner exists on Tinder, from a first name, an age, a gender and a location, with an optional photo. Bumble, Hinge, Happn and OkCupid can be added as an option. It runs without access to his phone, from $17.90 a search. It can't see a Snap Score, a Snap, or a Snapchat friend list, can't tell you who he is snapping, can't search by phone number or email, and can't read messages on any app. A profile that comes up is not proof of an affair.

If your question is only about Snapchat, no tool answers it, and we'd rather tell you that than sell you a search. For the dating app question itself, run a search on CheatEye or read is my boyfriend on dating apps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does your Snap Score go up when you receive a Snap? Snapchat says the score combines "the number of Snaps you've sent and received". So yes, received Snaps are part of it.

Does Snap Score go up from chats? Snapchat doesn't say. Its Help Center names Snaps sent, Snaps received and Stories posted, plus "a couple other factors", and does not mention text chats. Most blogs say chats don't count. That's a user observation.

Can a Snap Score go up without him opening the app? Possibly, since received Snaps count. Snapchat doesn't explain when the number updates.

How many points is one Snap? Snapchat doesn't publish it. "One point per Snap" is the common guess.

Can a Snap Score go down? No. Snapchat states: "There's no way to lower or reset your Snapscore."

Why does his Snap Score go up so fast? Group Snaps, streaks and Stories add up quickly. With Snapchat+, a subscriber's score can grow "twice as fast" when exchanging Snaps with other subscribers.

Can you see who someone is snapping from their Snap Score? No. The score is a single total. Snapchat offers no feature that shows another person's recipients. A dating profile is a separate fact, and one you can check: our guide to whether a husband is on dating sites explains how.