Instagram has a secret game hidden inside your DMs

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Did you know you can turn an unsolicited (or solicited) emoji in your Instagram DMs into a secret game hidden right in the app?

The social media giant, now owned by Meta, started in 2010 as a simple app for sharing photos with friends; since then, it has become a platform people all over use to communicate using direct messages or DMs. And finding the secret game is actually simple.

Go into your DMs inside the app and either be sent or send a single emoji of your choosing. Once that emoji is chosen and sent if you tap the emoji, a secret game will appear that resembles a single-player version of pong with the selected emoji appears.

You use your finger to drag the black bar from left to right to keep the emoji in the air. The screen will start yellow and change colors as you get more hits on the emoji. A high score tracker in the top right corner gives you a goal to try and break each time you want to jump into the game.

The feature is available on the Android and Apple versions of the Instagram app.

PIX11 reached out to Instagram but did not immediately receive a comment back.