Be it an office presentation meeting or a social media platform, in order to be recognized and remembered, you have to stand out in the crowd. Snapchat is a platform that understood this concept well right from the beginning and has, therefore, strove to make the platform unique. The first step to this action was its disappearing snaps feature, which led to the viral popularity of the platform in its initial days.
And while most of Snapchat’s features are also available on other platforms today, the platform still maintains a distinction in its user interface, keeping its appeal alive in the heart of its users.
The unique features of Snapchat sometimes also create problems for new users, who struggle to understand what a particular symbol means on the platform.
In today’s blog, we’re going to discuss one such symbol – an empty grey chat box – and what it could mean for you. Let’s get started!
What Does Empty Grey Chat Box Mean on Snapchat?
So, an empty grey chat box has mysteriously appeared on your Chats tab, and you have no clue what to make of it. Fret not; we’re here to resolve your mystery.
First, you need to understand that Snapchat as a platform doesn’t really believe in keeping things straightforward because where’s the fun in that? Instead, it uses different colors and symbols to indicate various meanings.
The empty grey chat box is one such Snapchat symbol, and we’re here to decode what it could mean for you. Ready to dive in? Let’s go!
Reason #1: Your snap or chat must have expired
The first – and most commonly occurring – reason behind the appearance of an empty grey chat box is that the snap you sent wasn’t open in due time and, therefore, expired. But how can a snap expire on its own, you wonder?
Well, allow us to share with you a Snapchat norm that not many Snapchatters are aware of. Unlike the content of other social media platforms, all snaps that you share on this platform come with an expiration period. This expiration period is quite long, keeping in mind the general time a user might take to open it; the period is 30 days-long.
So, if a shared snap remains unopened on the 31st day since it has been shared, the servers of Snapchat will automatically delete it, leaving behind an empty grey chat box for you.
Furthermore, the automatic snap deletion feature on Snapchat applies differently to individual and group chats. While the validity of snaps in the personal chat is 30 days, in group chats, it’s only 24 hours, after which Snapchat’s servers will automatically delete them if they remain unopened.
Reason #2: Your friend request to this user on Snapchat is still pending
The second reason behind the appearance of an empty grey chat box on Snapchat is the possibility that the user to whom you sent this snap is not your friend on the platform.
Now, we’re not saying that you’re incapable of noticing something that obvious, only that things like these aren’t as obvious on Snapchat as on other social media platforms.
Wondering how? Because once you start snapping with someone, there are very few differences between them being and not being your friend. Furthermore, it’s also possible that you two WERE friends, but the next person deleted you by mistake later on.
Whatever the reason, there’s one simple trick to find it out for sure. Open your friends list on Snapchat – the My Friends section – and look for their usernames in there. If it’s there, you can rule this possibility out and move ahead. And if it’s not, it means that they’re indeed not currently your friend on Snapchat.
Reason #3: This user could’ve blocked you on Snapchat
This might come as a surprise to some of you, but being blocked can also lead to the appearance of an empty grey chat box on your Snapchat account. Now, you’d be wondering how your snap was sent to this user if they had blocked you on Snapchat. Well, there’s only one explanation behind it: this user blocked you after you sent them the last snap.
There can be any number of reasons behind their action, which is why we’ll leave the speculation of that to you. But if you need help knowing for sure whether or not you’re really blocked, try this trick:
Go to the search bar on Snapchat and enter the full username of this person inside. If you get User not found in the search results, it’s a sign that they’ve indeed blocked you on Snapchat.
Reason #4: It could be a glitch on Snapchat’s part
If you’ve stuck with us so far and have ruled out all of the aforementioned possibilities, the only likelihood that remains to be explored is that it could be a glitch. While it might sound strange, large platforms like Snapchat are known to face errors like these from time to time.
If the fault is on their part, the Snapchat Support Team will do their best to resolve your issue at the earliest. You can write to them explaining your problem at support@snapchat.com.
The bottom line
With this, we’re ready to wrap things up. Before we take your leave, let’s quickly summarize our learnings of the blog.
We began by discussing how Snapchat has managed to stand out from the crowd of social media platforms. Some features that make the platform unique can also present confusion for new users on the platform; the empty grey chat box is one such feature.
We then moved on to explore different possibilities that could lead to the appearance of the empty grey chat box on your Snapchat. We hope to have resolved your issue above. Need our help with another Snapchat-related problem? Tell us in the comments below!
Also Read:
