What Does It Mean When Someone Asks You to “FAOTP” on Snapchat?

It’s never easy being away from your friends and loved ones, but luckily, we basically live in the future and there are approximately one zillion ways to stay in touch even when we can’t see people in person. One of those methods of staying in touch is Snapchat! Whether you’re sending a quick pic or keeping up a years-long Snapstreak with your BFF, there’s a good chance that you already spend plenty of time on the messaging app.

Of course, even if you spend all day sending snaps, there are always going to be new things to learn when it comes to Snapchat vernacular. It seems like there’s a new acronym or initialism pretty much every week! The latest one that has people puzzled is “FAOTP.” What’s the meaning of that?

So, even though you may have come across “FAOTP” on Snapchat, the truth is that the activity it refers to actually isn’t limited to Snapchat at all. Who saw that one coming? As it turns out, “FAOTP” stands for “Fall Asleep on the Phone.” In other words, the idea is that you and your friend (or crush!) can talk on the phone together at night until you both fall asleep.

As easy as it sounds to FAOTP with someone, it seems as though there are some definite guidelines you should stick to before a FAOTP call. Most importantly, even though the plan is to fall asleep eventually, it’s considered bad form to fall asleep immediately upon joining the call. In other words, FAOTP-ing isn’t really recommended for incredibly sleepy people.

You can FAOTP with someone with a standard phone call, a FaceTime call, a Snapchat call, or any other live chat apps so you can actually see each other fall asleep. Or, well, one person can watch the other person fall asleep, anyway. 

As we learned from the people of TikTok, falling asleep on a FaceTime call — or pretending to do so — can also provide some excellent content. Some people participated in the FaceTime Challenge by playing the FaceTime “end call” sound over the call in order to wake up their significant other (or to reveal that their significant other was actually just pretending to be asleep to get off the call).

Others reversed the prank by pretending to be asleep and recording what their significant other did upon discovering they had slipped off to dreamland. Both versions of the FaceTime Challenge are honestly pretty adorable and hilarious.

Even though nothing compares to actually being with your friend or significant other (especially as you’re drifting off to sleep), there’s no denying that technology definitely comes in handy when you can’t be together. It’s even better these days when you don’t have to worry about limited phone minutes or running up your phone bill! Now, you can FAOTP to your heart’s content. Just make sure you don’t drool all over your phone!