Seeing a little green dot on a Snapchat profile can make you wonder what’s happening. Is your friend online right now but then why are they not responding? Did they close Snapchat, so how is the green dot visible? And how long will that little green dot stay after someone closes their Snapchat app? We’ll explain exactly what that Snapchat green dot means and how long you can expect it to stay visible.
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What Is the Green Dot?
This green dot is an activity indicator, which means your friend is currently using Snapchat. You can say that the person is online. You will notice this green dot in three places on Snapchat:
- Next to Profile: If you go to your friend’s profile by tapping their profile icon or Bitmoji, you will see a green dot next to their Bitmoji.
- Search Friends Page: You will notice this same green dot if you tap the search (magnifying glass) icon at the top of your Snapchat screen.
- Add Friends Page: This green dot will also appear if you go to the add friends page.
How to Turn Off the Green Dot on Snapchat
If you prefer a little more privacy and don’t want your friends to see when you’re active on Snapchat, you can easily turn off that green (dot) activity indicator. Here’s how to stop showing green dot to your friends:
- Tap on your Profile icon or Bitmoji.
- Tap on the Settings in the top right corner.
- Scroll down to the Privacy Controls section and tap on the Activity Indicator option.
- Turn off Activity indicator.
How Long Does the Green Dot Stay?
Generally, the green dot disappears 3-5 minutes after the user closes Snapchat. But it is sometimes visible even if you are not active on Snapchat. So, if you see a green dot, it means the person was active at some point in the past 24 hours.
Green dot means the person was active today and does not necessarily mean he/she is active now.
Beyond the green dot, Snapchat provides a more specific timeframe for when a friend was last active. If someone has been using the app recently, you might see a timestamp next to their name or Bitmoji instead of a green dot.
This could look like “22m”, indicating they were active 22 minutes ago, or “5h”, meaning they were last online 5 hours ago.
Also Read:
- What Do Icons, Symbols, Emojis Mean on Snapchat – Complete Guide
- Snapchat Planets Order and Meaning (2025): How Friends Solar System Works
- 2 Ways to Send a Snap to Multiple Friends at Once on Snapchat
The 24-Hour Cutoff:
This specific time indication generally appears for activity within the last 24 hours. Once a friend hasn’t been active for more than a full day, the green dot and any accompanying timestamp will disappear entirely. They will only reappear the next time that person opens and uses Snapchat again.
Is Green Dot Always Right? (Not Really!)
We decided to put the Snapchat green dot activity monitor feature to the test, and the results were disappointing. We had one phone showing a friend with the green dot, but not for the same friend in the other phone.
It got even stranger. On another phone where the green dot wasn’t showing for a friend, we started typing them a message. You’d think that would trigger some kind of “active” signal, right? Well, even with that little “typing…” bubble popping up on our end, the green dot stubbornly refused to appear next to their Snapchat profile name.
The green dot only appeared when we sent the message. So, based on our little experiment, it seems like the green dot feature on Snapchat isn’t always the most reliable indicator of someone online on Snapchat. It might lag a bit or only fully register activity once a direct interaction, like sending a message, occurs.
Also, we saw that it was sometimes taking more than 15 minutes for the green dot to disappear.
The Bottom Line on Accuracy:
While the green dot can give you a general idea of recent activity, don’t treat it as a Bible truth. It might not always reflect someone’s immediate online status on Snapchat. There can be a bit of a delay or inconsistency in how it appears.
Does That Green Dot Mean Something Else Too? (The Other Green Dot)
Now, we’ve spent a good bit of time talking about the green dot next to your friends’ names, and it’s important to make something else crystal clear. There’s another green dot you might see while using Snapchat, but it’s a completely different one.
This one appears in the top corner of your phone’s screen, usually near the status bar with other status bar icons, where you see your battery percentage and network signal.
Some articles mentioned that “green dot has two meanings,” but it’s crucial to recognize that this isn’t a Snapchat-specific feature related to your activity status within the app. Instead, it’s a general privacy indicator built into your smartphone’s operating system (whether you’re on an iPhone or a recent Android device).
What Status Bar Top Green Dot Means:
This particular green dot is designed to alert you whenever an app on your phone is actively accessing the phone’s camera. Its sole purpose is to enhance your privacy and security by making it obvious when an app is using your camera, even if you’re not actively taking a photo or video at that exact moment.
So, there you have it, folks! Hopefully, this clears up all the confusion surrounding how long the green dot stays and what it means. While that little dot might not be a perfect real-time indicator, it gives you a helpful idea of who’s been around lately. Now you can navigate Snapchat with a little more insight into those little green signals!
