Go play this secret game in the TikTok DMs

TikTok has quietly added a secret emoji game that you can access in your DMs. The objective of the game is simple: use your finger to bounce as high as you can by jumping on alligators. Avoid the alligator skeletons and be careful – broken alligators disappear after just one landing, so you need to quickly bounce to the one above.

If you aim your jump at a floating emoji, you’ll get a speed boost that helps you climb faster. The same thing happens when you land on an alligator with a propeller on it. If you fail to land on an alligator or a skeleton, it’s game over. The object of the game is to bounce higher than your opponent. As you play, you’ll see both your score and your opponent’s high score displayed in the top right corner.

TikTok told TechCrunch on Tuesday that the game is available globally and can be accessed in both one-on-one DMs and group chats.

You can access the game by sending an emoji in any chat and then clicking on it to enter the game. The emoji you click on is the same one that will float on the screen to give you a boost. You can use any emoji you want, but you can only access the game by sending a single emoji at a time.

TikTok says it released this Easter egg to make messaging more fun and add a playful element of competition to DMs on the platform.

With this release, TikTok is taking a page out of Instagram’s book. Instagram introduced its own hidden emoji DM game two years ago, and TikTok’s version follows a similar concept. The Instagram version has players using their finger to move a paddle to keep an emoji bouncing, with the game ending once the emoji falls.

TikTok isn’t the only social media platform experimenting with DM games. Meta confirmed to TechCrunch in January that Threads is exploring games in conversations. The company is internally prototyping a basketball game that appears to allow users to shoot virtual hoops by swiping their finger.