TikTok's 'hidden game' shows it wants even more of our time

We're used to Instagram copying from TikTok, but sometimes it goes the other way. A couple of years back, Meta's platform added a 'hidden emoji game'. Now TikTok's testing its take on the concept in a bid to keep people in the app even longer.

According to posts on social media, the shortform video app, which is owned by ByteDance in much of the world but now by investors including Oracle and Silver Lake in the US, has quietly begun rolling out a lightweight mini game in direct messages. Alas, GTA VI it is not.

According to posts, the game is 'hidden' feature in the sense that you have to know how to activate it. Users need to go to either a one-to-one or group chat and send a shades or crying face emoji and then tap it.

The emoji then becomes part of a game in which it floats on the screen. The goal is to climb a stack of alligators, which requires quick reactions as some of them disappear. The emojis provide speed boosts, while skeletons provide obstacles to avoid. There's a competitive aspect, scores shown in the top right, encouraging users to keep playing against their friends.

According to Tech Crunch, TikTok has confirmed that the game is available globally, but it appears that it's only on iOS. The company said the Easter egg is intended to make messaging more fun, although it seems to me that the intention is to keep people in the app even when they tire of doomscrolling.

Meta has reportedly been experimenting with a basketball game for Threads chats that lets users shoot hoops by swiping with their finger.

It seems games are being explored as a new way to keep people on social media amid reports suggesting that activity on such apps is declining. The UK media watchdog Ofcom reported this week that users became less active last year due to fears that old posts could come back to cause them problems. It found that less than half (49%) of adult social media users now post, share or comment, compared with 61% in 2024.

TikTok is reportedly also in the process of casting actors to appear in its own 'microdramas', which it plans to launch in a dedicated feed within the app. It seems a logical progression as attention spans become too short for people to even watch a full episode of a series without glancing at their phones, although I wonder if the problem isn't more the quality of content rather than users' preference for short formats.