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Instagram Valentine\'s Day 2025
Instagram Valentine\'s Day 2025
Courtesy of Instagram
Culture > Digital

Here’s How To Use Instagram’s Valentine’s Day 2025 Features

February is here, which means Valentine’s Day is upon us! Whether you’re in a relationship or not, Valentine’s Day is a fun holiday to embrace the spirit of, whether you want to deck yourself out in red and pink, or just take a moment to appreciate all of the loved ones in your life. Of course, it’s also a very social media-friendly holiday, meaning it’s a big day to be on Instagram. And this year, as with last year, Instagram has come out with a slew of V-Day features to celebrate the holiday within the platform. 

That’s right, on top of all the excitement that comes with the season of love, Instagram is once again unveiling features that will make it easy to get into the spirit of Valentine’s Day and spice up your experience using the app.

These limited-time features will be available globally from Thursday, Feb. 13, to Saturday, Feb. 15. Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram’s Valentine’s Day 2025 features, which run the gamut from Story enhancements to DM Easter eggs, and beyond.

Secret Phrases In Notes

This Valentine’s Day, you can show some love to your besties (or flirt with your crush) by using IG’s secret phrases in Notes. You can use this feature by using special phrases such as “vday,” “ily,” “pookie,” and more. These secret words will unlock special effects when posting a Note. Instagram has done this secret phrase feature in the past, like on Halloween and during the Olympics, when the related keywords would trigger graphics and animations. But you’ll have to play around with different words to find out which ones will make the effects happen! 

Valentine\'s Day notes feature on Instagram app
Courtesy of Instagram

Themed Fonts and Text Effects 

Looking to enhance the content you want to post around Valentine’s Day? If so, you can use retro-inspired Valentine’s Day themed fonts and text effects to level up your creativity on your Stories and Reels. Plus, you can unlock a custom fun text effect when tagging your friends in stories. 

Chat Themes 

On top of the already existing custom themes that are available to use year-round in DM chats, there will be additional new Valentine’s Day themes to customize the background of your DM chats. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love a good theme to match the V-Day aesthetic?!

Instagram Valentine\'s Day 2025
Courtesy of Instagram

Vinyl Music Sticker 

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to listen to love songs, and on IG, you can add a love song of your choosing to your Stories using a limited-time vinyl record sticker. You can even give the sticker a scratch, and you’ll see a red heart (❤️) effect appear! 

“Add Yours” Template

Join in on the fun and show some love to your friends, family, pets, or even yourself by joining in on Stories templates made by your favorite creators or friends. And, of course, there is always the option of making your own template and kicking off a new trend among your own followers. 

Courtney Lemkin is a National Contributing Writer for Her Campus. She writes articles for the lifestyle and career vertical where she gives advice relating to academics, campus life, and more.

She is a master's student at Adelphi University, earning her MA in educational theatre with a concentration in English education. She is a recent graduate of St. John's University where she majored in communication arts with a concentration in media management and minored in English.

During her time at St. John's, she was the vice president of the campus' multimedia organization and also has prior editorial experience writing for College Magazine. She later became an editor for the online publication, then worked her way up to social media coordinator / newsletter editor, and eventually held the position of editor in chief.

In her free time, Courtney enjoys anything related to the arts and loves going to see Broadway plays.