Snapchat's New Best Friends Emoji Decoded

— -- When Snapchat nixed its best friends feature in January, some avid users of the ephemeral messaging app freaked out about the change.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said in January the old best friends feature was eliminated because "a few higher-profile friends wanted to keep their usernames private," however he promised it would eventually be back in a new form -- and he kept his word.

Users can now expect to see friend emojis populating their Snapchat contacts.

The cute symbols can be another way for power users of the app to measure their relationships with their friends, but decoding the symbols takes some getting used to.

Announcing the new feature by using photos of Beyonce with various celebrities, Snapchat provided its own nifty explainer of what the cute symbols mean about users' social patterns. Here's a look at what some of the most common emoji mean for your Snapchat life.

Gold Heart

You two are mutual best friends. Congratulations.

Simple Smile

You like this person and Snapchat them frequently but they're not your best Snapchat pal.

Smirking Emoji

Ah, unrequited love. See this and it means you send many snaps to this friend but get little in return.

Sunglasses Emoji

You and this person are in quite the Snapchat love triangle, sending more snaps to a third person than any of your other friends.

Fire Emoji

If you see this next to a friend's name, it means you two are on a hot streak, messaging each other several days in a row.