Once your'e inside the Love Island villa, you are not allowed any communication with the outside world.
Islanders cannot speak to their loved ones, don't get to mix with Spanish holidaymakers and are not told about any major news events.
They weren't even informed that Boris Johnson had resigned as Prime Minster at the start of the month, so they have that to look forward to when they depart.
The only exception in the eight-year history of the ITV2 dating show was last series when the Islanders were allowed to watch the Euro 2020 final between Italy and England.
Despite being blocked from speaking to anyone who isn't in those villa walls - some crafty singletons have come up with sneaky ways to branch out.
One of those is Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who styles her hair in a certain special way to let her friends from home know she's missing them.
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One of her friends revealed that the actress has been plaiting her hair in order to communicate with her from inside the Mallorcan villa.
Her close pal, Arabella Ovenden, explained that she knows when Ekin-Su is missing her and feeling homesick.
"We have this sign – if she ever plaits her hair that means that she misses me. She did it almost straight away," she told OK! in June, when Ekin was relatively new into the villa and caused a stir with the original girls.
Arabella continued: "It made me feel bad, girls can be very bitchy and it just didn't seem like they were taking to her.
"It seems fine now that she’s come out of her shell. She won’t let people mess her about, she's very genuine."
Perhaps indicating that they are destined to be together, the other Islander who is making secret signals to the outside world is the person she is coupled up with.
Davide Sanclimenti managed to send a secret message to dumped Islander Jay Younger - but his method was a lot more inventive.
The Italian stallion was seen cooking the rest of the Islanders a delicious spaghetti carbonara last week.
"Mate, this looks f***ing banging," said a very complimentary Billy Brown, while Davide was heard saying: "Some pepper as well."
A stunned Billy then added: "Davide, oh my God, that's no joke!"
Ekin-Su, who helped Davide dish up the plates of creamy goodness, also tucked in and announced: "It's actually really good."
However, viewers were not aware that Davide wasn't just cooking pasta to feed the hungry Islanders - as he had a secret agenda.
On Twitter the following day, Jay confessed that the pair had literally cooked up the scheme before he left the villa.
The Scottish hunk tweeted: "No one knows this, but I told Davide to cook carbonara for everyone if he was missing me as a secret message to the outside world #LoveIsland @Davide_Sancli."
Fans were quick to respond to Jay's tweet, with one person replying: "Best bromance ever cant wait to see use guys reunite."
Another added: "Omgggg that’s cute," while a third agreed: "That’s actually adorable."
It's certainly not the first time that Islanders have started using hand signals in the villa.
During last year's series, viewers spotted Toby Aromoloran, who played football for Hashtag United, sending messages to some of his teammates.
Toby had been a player for the semi-professional football club, which was set up in 2016 by YouTube star Spencer Owen and his brother, before he gave it up to become a reality TV star and influencer.
Eagle-eyed supporters of the club noticed Toby using his fingers to to form the hashtag symbol and do the club's tardemark hand gesture.
And it emerged that Toby and the players had arranged for him to make the sign before he flew out to Spain.
A post on the official Hashtag United Instagram page read: "He did it! @tobyaromolaran Hastagged it on @loveisland - we spotted in Sat's show."
After the club confirmed the gesture, viewers took to Twitter to applaud Toby for sneaking the hand movement in.
"I saw this as well, he did it so well without people noticing, what a guy," replied one person.
Another added: "I don’t need to watch anymore now, Love Island complete."
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