Go play this secret game in your TikTok direct messages

TikTok has quietly added a secret emoji game that you can access in your direct messages. The goal of the game is simple: use your finger to jump as high as possible by jumping across the crocodiles. Avoid the skeletal crocodile, and be careful – the broken crocodiles disappear after just one landing, so you need to quickly bounce back to the crocodile 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 a crocodile with a propeller. If you fail to land on a crocodile or land on a skeleton, the game will be over. The goal of the game is to bounce higher than your opponent. While playing, you will see your score and your opponent’s high score displayed in the upper right corner.

TikTok told TechCrunch on Tuesday that the game is available globally and can be accessed through individual direct messages and group chats.

You can access the game by sending an emoji in any chat and then tapping on it to enter the game. The emojis you tap are the same ones 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 one emoji at a time.

TikTok says it launched this Easter egg to make messaging more fun and to add a fun element of competition to direct messages on the platform.

With this launch, TikTok is taking a page from 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 fingers to move the paddle to keep the emoji bouncing, and the game ends 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 gaming in chats. The company is internally preparing a prototype of a basketball game that appears to let users actually shoot hoops by swiping their finger.