Why Is There A Purple Circle On Snapchat Quick Add?

The purple circle on Snapchat’s Quick Add feature generally indicates that the person has a story posted, and this design is meant to encourage users to add more people. However, there’s some nuance to this:

• If the circle is purple, it means they have a story added that’s only available to their friends.
• If the circle is blue, it indicates that they have public content or stories available to view.
• A user can have stories available to both the public and their friends.
• The color of the circle can also depend on which tab you’re in: the rings on stories (of friends) are only purple if they’re in the stories tab, and blue if they’re in the chats tab.

This means that you might still see a purple ring around someone’s avatar even if you’re able to view a public story they’ve posted, because they also have other stories that are hidden and only available to their accepted friends.