The season of love has finally arrived! Whether or not you are in a relationship this Valentineās Day, a lot of us college students will make time during the day to visit an app thatās used and available all year long: Instagram. And if youāre interested in bringing the ~ love ~ to social media, Instagram has a ton of Valentineās 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 Valentineās Day, for those who want to truly get in the spirit of the holiday.Ā
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 Valentineās Day-related keywords or emojis, it will result in an āexploding heart/emojiā animation in your DM inbox. Some examples of keywords that trigger this fun and unique animation are: Happy Valentineās Day, happy vday, vday, š, š, ā¤ļø, š, š, š¹, ā£ļø and more!Ā
These hidden Valentineās Day features arenāt 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.Ā
Besides the hidden features, another way to theme your Instagram experience this Valentineās Day is through the Add Yours Template. This relatively newer feature on the app ā which you can find by clicking on the sticker button on the top right corner of Stories ā 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 doesnāt love customization and a good meme?!
This Valentineās 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 Valentineās Day, DM a reel by someone they follow that youāll know they love. Donāt forget you can also change your chat theme in DMs to āloveā or āValentineās Dayā to truly get in the Valentineās Day spirit!Ā
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 itās too late!