What does pending mean on Snapchat?

Several Snapchat users are receiving “pending” messages after sending messages to other users, but what does it mean? Here’s everything you need to know.

Multimedia instant messaging app Snapchat has become an essential part of many people’s social lives, as it offers a unique platform for connecting and sharing moments.

The platform allows users to send text messages, photos, and videos to each other instantly. And what makes the app different from others is that the pictures and videos are deleted after the recipient views them.

Recently, a bunch of Snapchatters noticed that their messages were stuck on “pending” and were accompanied by a gray send arrow — but what does that mean, exactly?

Unsplash: Thought Catalog

What does pending mean on Snapchat?

Basically, “pending” means that Snapchat knows you’re trying to send a message, but can’t complete the request.

There are two main reasons for this. Either, there might be a bug with Snapchat that prevents your message to send, or there could be a slightly more awkward reason.

The most common reason for the pending message is that the person you’re trying to send a Snap to doesn’t have you added as a friend. By default, Snapchat will block any messages sent to you by a non-friend while also giving the sender the pending message.

Even if you’ve sent the person you’re trying to contact a friend request, the pending message won’t go away until they’ve added you.

If you’re sure that you’re Snapchat friends with someone, but you’re still seeing the pending message, it might mean that they’ve unfriended you. Check their profile to see if there are menus called Saved in Chat and Chat Attachments — if you don’t see these on their profile, it means you’re not friends.

How to fix the pending message on Snapchat

If you are certain you are still friends with the person you’re trying to send a message to, there are a few things you can try to have the message go through.

The first thing you should do is check your internet connection. A weak signal can mess with your Snaps, tricking the app into thinking that your messages can’t go through. Get closer to your Wi-Fi router, reset it, and connect to a new signal — whatever will get you the best connection.

You should also restart the Snapchat app. Swipe up from the bottom of your phone’s screen to see every app you have open, then swipe Snapchat off the screen to fully close it. If that doesn’t work, restart your phone too.

If that still doesn’t do the trick, try to uninstall the Snapchat app and download it again from your device’s app store. You might need to log in again, but this will refresh all your pending messages.

Finally, you can check to see if Snapchat is down or experiencing outages. Whenever there’s a problem with Snapchat’s servers, they post about it on the Snapchat Support Twitter page.

If you want to learn more about Snapchat and how to use it, you can check out our other guides here:

How to pin someone on Snapchat | What does OTP mean on Snapchat? | How to allow camera access on Snapchat | How to remove someone from your Snapchat best friends list | How to know if someone blocked you on Snapchat