The Instagram Notes Number Trend, Decoded & Explained

The days of passing notes to your crush, your bestie, and your bestie’s crush were thought to be long gone—until ever-clever Gen Z figured out a way to bring it back. The new, slyly-coded way of flirting plays on Instagram’s new “Notes” feature. It’s kind of like a vintage romance, but digital. If you want to play along, you’ll need the Instagram Notes number trend codes.

In case you missed it, or your phone hasn’t updated yet, Instagram rolled out a new Notes feature last December. Instagram Notes are meant to act as little post-it notes for your followers and close friends to see. The catch? Only people you follow who mutually follow you back are able to see the note—out of that larger group of followers, you can select specific users to see the note from your “close friends” list. The note will appear as a short blurb in the messaging section of the Instagram app and whoever can see your note is able to respond with a longer DM if they please. Like an Instagram story, each note is fleeting and only appears for 24 hours. Translation: an Insta Note is the perfect low-stakes ice breaker or conversation starter. Don’t worry, nobody else can see who you’ve shared the note with but you.

Courtesy of Meta.

So how do these notes relate to flirting or that girl from work or class you’ve been majorly crushing on? That’s where the secret letter codes come in. Gen Z was raised to be fluent in internet lingo and in this case, they’ve made up their own secret language. Here’s how it works—instead of posting a a cute quote or your hot take on the latest HBO show to your notes, you post a letter code. Each letter code equates to the first initial of a name. As long as you know what the codes mean, you can use it to subtely (or not so subtely) drop hints to your crush or friends.

It may sound a little confusing until you give it a try—and plenty of users have. Since April 5th, over 1.3M Instagram users have used Insta Notes thanks to the letter code trend. The high usage rate can be attributed to Gen Z’s preferred method of creating intimate connection online. According to Instagram’s 2023 Trend Report, more than half of Gen Z social media users feel more comfortable being vulnerable over text or online than in person.

Plus, Gen Z has made the notes flirting pretty much rejection-proof. Since you’re able to choose exactly who sees the note on your profile, you can specifically target your crush or person of interest—otherwise known as “Notes Trapping”. This way you can post about specific topics that you already know the person you’re vying after will probably like or respond to. Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game.

If you’re feeling flirty or simply can’t swipe right anymore on your dating profile, it may be worth giving the secret note codes a try—or at least you can finally decipher the ones you’re seeing. Every code you need to know is included below:

o22 = A

o76 = B

o99 = C 

o12 = D  

o43 = E 

o98 = F

o24 = G  

o34 = H 

o66 = I 

o45 = J 

o54 = K 

o84 = L 

o33 = M 

o12 = N

o89 = O 

o29 = P 

o38 = Q 

o56 = R  

o23 = S

o65 = T  

o41 = U  

o74 = V 

o77 = W 

o39 = X 

o26 = Y 

o10 = Z

Take notes. Literally.