Social Media

Publicly and explicitly announcing a new romantic relationship on social media — posting a clear, tagged photo and leaving no ambiguity about who the person is. The bold, all-in counterpart to a soft launch. A hard launch is a confident statement that you're officially "official."

“After weeks of mystery, she hard launched him with a full caption and tag. The internet lost it.”

When a reply to a post gets more likes/engagement than the original post, indicating disapproval of the original. Can also be used as a verb to deliberately attempt this.

“His terrible take got ratioed so hard that the top reply has 10x the likes.”

Subtly introducing a new romantic partner on social media without explicitly announcing the relationship — posting a photo that includes them without tagging or explaining who they are. Borrowed from startup terminology where a product is quietly made available before an official announcement, allowing for low-stakes feedback.

“She soft launched him with a blurry photo of their hands. Comment section went crazy.”