Holiday features: Instagram gets Easter Eggs for Christmas

Fireworks, bangs, two champagne glasses and the party horn: anyone who writes some of the usual messages to their friends and acquaintances or uses certain emojis on January 1, 2025 is in for a surprise – writes Instagram. The photo service with chat function does not reveal what exactly will happen. It is one of the newly introduced holiday functions. These are intended to help users share the best moments of the year with friends. However, the functions will disappear again at the beginning of next year. What will remain is a timer for direct messages.

In a press release, Meta talks about Easter eggs, i.e. hidden special features in the service. In addition to the surprise, there is also a collage for stories in which you can share the best moments from 2024. A "year-end photo dump".

Mariah Carey moves into the DMs

At the end of the year, there are also five new templates for "It's your turn", which is a function or task that you can integrate. You complete the "Your turn" task yourself, friends can join in and do it too and share it, thus prompting others. It is not yet clear exactly what the new templates will look like.

There will also be new seasonal fonts to match New Year's Eve and a countdown text module that can be used in stories, reels and the feed. Private chats can be transformed into different holiday modes. To do this, select the individual direct messages and click on the user at the top. A menu appears with settings for the chat, including "Design". Behind this are style templates, which have currently been expanded to include Christmas motifs. If you don't want to get rid of your earworm, you can select Mariah Carey as your background image, for example. There is also a comic snow image and purple fireworks for the New Year.

It is still unclear what is behind the "user-defined likes" when liking friends' New Year's Eve stories.

Timer: direct messages can be timed

As TechCrunch reports, Instagram will also have a new function for timing direct messages in the future. This option is not related to the festivities and will be permanent. It will soon be available to everyone worldwide.

Such a scheduler for messages is, of course, particularly practical for companies and creators, who can keep their followers happy without having to reach for their smartphone again and again. But private individuals can also use the function, for example to remind someone of something on a specific date.

If you want to time a message, you can do this by holding down the send button. The function is not yet available for everyone. According to TechCrunch, you can select a time up to 29 days in the future.

(emw)