Be careful what you GIF for: Giphy reveals your deepest desires

When does “cuffing season” actually begin? And when do people feel the loneliest? Giphy has the answers.

Giphy, an online repository of GIFs, has sifted through billions of animated image searches to break down modern romance trends for this Valentine’s Day.

The results yielded several surprises, including evidence that the so-called cuffing season starts much earlier than previously thought and that February – despite what capitalism may want you to believe – is actually a month of “lonely hearts.”

The analysis, based on data from 2024, was an attempt “to understand how Giphy users feel about their relationships and relationship status year-round,” the platform said in a blog post on Medium.

“We went under the hood with a few key questions: when exactly is cuffing season? When do our users feel single the most? When are our users soft launching their relationships?,” it said.

Businesses looking to engage audiences – whether they’re seeking love, happily in a relationship, or casually looking – will likely take note as well.

Cuffed-up or flying solo?

One key takeaway from the report found that cuffing season – the period when single people typically seek short-term partnerships for the colder months – actually begins as early as August and lasts through October.

While dictionaries like Merriam-Webster note that it “usually begins” in October and lasts until just after Valentine’s Day, data shows a different story, according to Giphy.

Last year’s data shows that searches for the term first began to climb at the end of summer, spiking by more than 100% in August when compared to July, and the peaks in October, with a more than 22% increase from the previous month.

“After October, interest declines sharply with the downward trend continuing into the new year, reaching a low in June – July,” Giphy said.

Meanwhile, February is actually the month when GIF searches for “single” and “forever alone” reach all-time highs. For example, searches for “single” increased by more than 12% in February compared to January last year, while “forever alone” jumped by more than 35%.

According to Giphy, this suggests that “our single users are acutely feeling their relationship status during the year’s most romantic holiday.” Searches for both terms decline sharply in March, remain steady through early summer, and then see a modest rise before dipping again.

Soft launch into situationship

However, the period around Valentine’s Day appears to be the time to “soft launch” a situationship, an informal romantic relationship, or seek out a “sneaky link,” which is a relationship that nobody knows about.

Queries for “sneaky link” peaked in February, jumping more than 131% compared to January, while searches for “situationship” increased almost 43% over the same period of time.

Engagement with both terms also increased at the start of summer, with “situationship” peaking in May. The search for both terms increased in 2024 compared to a year before, reflecting “a larger shift happening in the culture,” according to Giphy.

There was also a correlation between situationship-related GIF searches and queries for “soft launch,” or subtly hinting at a new romantic relationship. Meanwhile, “hard launch,” an explicit announcement of the relationship, soared around the same time as searches for cuffing season.

“Notably, search trends for ‘soft launch’ and ‘hard launch’ aligned with trends for two other terms in this report – ‘situationship’ and ‘cuffing season’ – indicating that the two trends are intertwined.”