Taylor Swift Fans Think Her Instagram Photos Are Counting Down To A New Album Announcement

Since breaking her usual album-release pattern with Reputation, all bets are off. Due to cryptic messages and photos on social media, fans think Taylor Swift's seventh album, TS7, announcement is coming. All of the clues, and clues hidden within clues, are enough to even confuse the most elite FBI agents on the planet. Here's a dive into the hints and theories released so far, and hopefully you've had copious amounts of caffeine to keep up.

It all started on Sunday, when Swift posted a photo of palm trees. I know what you're thinking: palm trees?... These aren't just any palm trees. They're ones Taylor Swift posted and they seemingly have a much deeper meaning thus leading fans into a frenzy. First off, the photo is captioned with seven palm tree emojis.

Additionally, fans have dissected how they're placed. A fan theorized about the trees on Twitter, saying the four trees clumped together on the left represent Swift's country albums and the two on the right are her pop albums. The tree in the center, therefore, must represent TS7, either a combination of the two, something totally new, or perhaps, greatest hits. (Palm trees have been threaded throughout the Reputation era as well.)

But Swifties won't stop there. One fan went as far as discovering the palm branch is representative of "eternal life," according to Wikipedia. Detective work has proved that Swift had "eternal" stitched into her Versace gown at the Billboard Awards last year. That's not all. Others discovered that a version of Swift in the "Look What You Made Me Do" video is wearing a shirt with palm trees on it. (Fans have gone as far as counting the stars in the background of the palm trees photo and connecting them to an April album release date.)

Moving on — after the palm trees photo, Swift posted a photo of herself the following day, and in it, she's sitting on the sixth step of a staircase. (Well, it's the sixth from the bottom and seventh from the top, if we're being specific.) The photo is simply captioned with a pink heart. The following day, she posted a photo of herself in one of five holes in a fence, captioned with a yellow heart. If this photo countdown theory goes according to plan, the big announcement will come on March 2. (Some also argue there are eight holes in this couch in a photo she posted the day before the palm trees.) It should also be noted that consecutive posts like this are rare from the often sporadic social media user.

Fans, many deserving of detective awards, are going nuts:

But wait, there's more. Shortly after revealing she was "even more excited" for her next chapter at the 2018 American Music Awards, she posted another photo fans are linking all of this to now. In the photo, she's playing Scrabble with her mom by beautiful, sprawling flowers and her shirt has flowers on it. (It's also the same shirt she's wearing in the third photo clue of her behind the fence.) The photo is captioned, "Let the games BEGIN." Trying to guess the meaning of the flowers have caused some serious deep dives on the internet.

This is Taylor Swift we're dealing with, so naturally, these aren't just any flowers. A fan found the actual shirt, which reads, "Myosotis Sylvatica." Their investigation found that this is a plant which blooms in April, which is the theorized album release month. (They left out that the shirt also says, "forget me not.") Anyway, the theory has created hilarious reactions such as this:

Additionally, fans have shared the mind-blowing discovery that there's a delicate flower placed on March 2 on the Taylor Swift calendar. One user pointed out the flower is half on Feb. 23 (when countdown started) and March 2 (when it'll supposedly end).

Clearly something is brewing and the overall aesthetic totally different than the hardcore vibe of Reputation. Last May, Perez Hilton revealed on YouTube that Swift told him TS7 would "definitely be out before [she's] 30," which is in December. Further, she's been spotted leaving the studio as recent as January, according to E!.

One more plot twist: Taylor Swift might be collaborating with Katy Perry. It's a shocker to anyone who's been following the two stars, who've been feuding through their music for the last few years. A collaboration theory goes back to the palm trees. In late January, Perry posted a photo posing in front of palm trees. Perry also recently posed with a flamingo, another element hidden in Swift's mysterious aesthetic. It could happen.

In any event, March 2 is coming and wigs must be adjusted.