• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Tapping into the retro gaming aesthetic proving popular among a variety of recently released mini-games, TikTok has launched a simple mobile game designed to be played casually by friends within DMs and group chats.

Similar to the chat-based pixelated basketball game Threads launched in January, TikTok is attempting to bring low-stakes competition to its in-app chat experience, inviting users to access the game by sending a single emoji and clicking on it.

From there, users can attempt to cross a stream by bouncing off a horde of swimming alligators, earning points and unlocking power-ups as they go.

In the past few years, social media apps and streaming platforms have experimented with adding simple retro mini-games to their user experience as a way to boost engagement within direct messaging and advertising spaces.

TikTok's new gator game mirrors Threads' chat-based basketball game and a hidden emoji game launched by Instagram two years ago.

However, YouTube is also inviting developers to build their own mini-games, known as "Playables" and Netflix launched communal party games in 2025.

Reddit as well as Samsung and Amazon Prime all offer playable ad types.

LinkedIn, too, has been introducing New York Times-style games to its platform for the past two years, offering seven different daily puzzle games that allow users to compare scores with each other on a leaderboard.

TikTok's new mini game is currently available to all users across the globe.