BTS ARMY feels the love of Google.
In honor of the ninth anniversary of the creation of BTS ARMY – the name of the K-pop superstars’ massive fan base – on July 9, 2022, Google has launched two new collaborations with BTS.
Beginning Friday (US time zones), fans who search “BTS” in Google can unlock a secret Easter egg. On the BTS search results page (on mobile or desktop), users can click the purple heart icon that appears next to the BTS header in the top left. This will unleash a barrage of purple balloons that you can pop with a click or tap. Clicking on the balloons with microphones will reveal special audio messages from the band members themselves.
“BTS has such a positive energy, and we wanted to bring a little bit of that into search,” said Elissa Wolf, Google’s lead Delight Features software engineer, in a statement provided to Variety. “I’m a fan myself, so I was thrilled to be able to work on this project!”
Additionally, Google Arts & Culture celebrates BTS ARMY in a unique collaboration with BTS, “BTS x Street Galleries”. The collaboration takes fans on a Street View tour of the cities and buildings that hold special memories for BTS. At each of the 14 locations, fans can create their own Street Gallery with artwork curated by the band and exclusive photography and creations from RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, V, Jimin and Jung Kook.
BTS has also partnered with YouTube Shorts to exclusively host the #MyBTStory challenge. The month-long challenge, which invited ARMY and music fans everywhere to share their most unforgettable BTS memories, ends today and concludes with the release of a special ARMY tribute video on BTS’ official YouTube channel next Wednesday, July 13th .
BTS officially named their devoted fans ARMY in 2013 — an acronym that stands for “Adorable Representative MC for Youth.”
The K-pop group currently has more than 67 million subscribers to their official YouTube channel, BangtanTV, making them the third most viewed music artist on the platform (behind Blackpink and Justin Bieber). To date, the group has earned six music videos in YouTube’s Billion Views Club. The video for “Butter” garnered 108.2 million views in its first 24 hours — ranking YouTube first in that metric. In second place: BTS’ “Dynamite,” which garnered 101.1 million views in the first 24 hours.
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