If you’re bored of scrolling through throwback photos of your friends on vacation and reels of people dancing to the latest trending song on Instagram, then we’ve got just the right thing for you.
Did you know, Instagram has hidden a fun game in the Direct Messaging feature?
The social media platform has a secret game within the DMs that you can play using your favourite emoji.
To access the game, both iOS and Android users can open a message and send a single emoji to the selected user. After this, you need to select and hold the emoji that you sent in the chat. This will prompt the app to send you to the game interface. You can even select an emoji shared by your friend in the chat, as long as it’s just a single emoji in the message.
You will be led to a blank yellow screen with the chosen emoji floating in the center. The goal of the game is to prevent the emoji from falling off the screen by using your finger to move the paddle at the bottom of your screen to keep your emoji afloat and bouncing. It’s made to remind you of the nostalgic game, Atari Breakout.
The longer you keep your emoji afloat, the faster it bounces and the more difficult it becomes. You can gain points and advance in the game that will indicate advancing levels by changing the background and even the emoji.
Your high score in the game can be saved and you can pick up where you left off after you log in later.
According to a statement by an Instagram spokesperson to TechCrunch, this is another way by the company to make “Instagram feel more fun”.
The only thing to remember is to warn the person you’re sending the emoji to that you’re doing it to play the game and it’s not a newly acquired habit of sending random emojis without explanation!
Have you tried playing the game yet?!
