A bstract The symmetries of string theory on AdS 3 × S 3 × T 4 at the dual of the symmetric product orbifold point are described by a so-called Higher Spin Square (HSS). We show that the massive string spectrum in this background organises itself in terms of representations of this HSS, just as the matter in a conventional higher spin theory does so in terms of representations of the higher spin algebra. In particular, the entire untwisted sector of the orbifold can be viewed as the Fock space built out of the multiparticle states of a single representation of the HSS, the so-called ‘minimal’ representation. The states in the twisted sector can be described in terms of tensor products of a novel family of representations that are somewhat larger than the minimal one.