The season of love has finally arrived! Whether or not you are in a relationship this Valentine’s Day, a lot of us college students will make time during the day to visit an app that’s used and available all year long: Instagram. And if you’re interested in bringing the ~ love ~ to social media, Instagram has a ton of Valentine’s Day features for you to take advantage of.
Lots of Gen Zers have Instagram and use it in their daily lives to post pictures, discover the latest trends on their Explore pages, or see the latest pop culture-related news. And while Instagram may be integrated into our daily lives all year long, the app just released some hidden features that will spice up your experience on the app this Valentine’s Day, for those who want to truly get in the spirit of the holiday.
The first hidden feature is within Notes. (You know, those mini messages that appear on top of your DMs). When posting or tapping notes, if you include Valentine’s Day-related keywords or emojis, it will result in an “exploding heart/emoji” animation in your DM inbox. Some examples of keywords that trigger this fun and unique animation are: Happy Valentine’s Day, happy vday, vday, 💘, 😍, ❤️, 💕, 💖, 🌹, ❣️ and more!
These hidden Valentine’s Day features aren’t just for Notes, though. You can also find them in your Stories, too. Any time you post or tap an @mention in Stories, it will trigger floating hearts in your Stories. You can also see hearts added to the @mention sticker in your Stories tray.
Besides the hidden features, another way to theme your Instagram experience this Valentine’s Day is through the Add Yours Template. This relatively newer feature on the app — which you can find by clicking on the sticker button on the top right corner of Stories — has become so popular amongst users, with hundreds of millions of Add Yours Templates already being shared globally. And with the ability to create Add Yours Templates in Stories, you can make and share your own custom, meme-able Add Yours Templates by pinning GIFs, texts, and gallery images into each Template you create. And I mean, when it comes to social media, who doesn’t love customization and a good meme?!
This Valentine’s Day, you can also make use of Reels or Memes! If you are crushing on someone or you want to send a video to your bestie this Valentine’s Day, DM a reel by someone they follow that you’ll know they love. Don’t forget you can also change your chat theme in DMs to “love” or “Valentine’s Day” to truly get in the Valentine’s Day spirit!
These hidden features will be available across Stories and Notes now through 12 p.m. ET on Feb. 15. So give them a try while you still can, before it’s too late!