What’s New with Instagram and What Else to Expect
With the ever-competitive digital age, social media sites have high expectations to live up to, and that includes the regular implementation of new features to improve the user experience. Earlier this year at Facebook’s Developer Conference, exciting updates were announced to be coming to Instagram, and since then, we’ve seen a lot of these already implemented in the app. Familiarize yourself with a few of the newest features the platform has to offer, and what we can expect to be released in the near future.
What’s New
A brand-new camera for Instagram Stories gives users access to a feature called Create Mode. Create Mode allows you to share stories without videos or photos, and it includes templates such as polls, questions, and countdowns, and even lets you randomize ideas. For example, if you wanted to post a story with questions, you could press the randomize icon and receive questions such as “What’s one thing you wish people knew more about you?” that your story viewers can respond to. Brands working with a social media company may take advantage of this new feature to foster more interactions with followers and target audiences.
Another exciting addition to the camera is the new donation sticker, which allows people who view your story to donate to a nonprofit of your choice. According to Instagram, “all nonprofits are reviewed by Instagram and receive 100% of the money you raise.”
A more surprising change comes in the form of hiding like counts, an integral feature of the platform. The purpose of this functionality is to create a less “pressurized” social media environment, where the focus is taken off of numbers and shifted onto more meaningful engagements. However, this feature is still being tested, and as far as how this will change the way brands handle Instagram management, the results are still unclear.
What Else to Expect
Beta testing has commenced for a new Instagram dark mode, which is now available for IOS 13 and Android 10 users. Similar to the dark mode on other apps, this feature simply turns the interface of Instagram from light to dark, allowing for an app experience that’s easier on the eyes.
New and upcoming features to social media platforms, including Instagram, are continuously being uncovered by Hong Kong based hacker, Jane Wong. According to CNBC, Jane was the one who leaked Instagram’s tests to hide like counts twelve days before the platform officially announced it. Even Facebook employees follow her updates to snoop at what other teams are developing.
Jane recently uncovered a new Stories capability currently being tested internally, called “Clips.” Clips is meant to rival TikTok, allowing the user to time, overlay music, and control the speed of a video. This sort of “cloning,” as Jane calls it, is common in the world of social media—LinkedIn has “cloned” Facebook’s reactions, and Instagram “cloned” its stories from Snapchat’s stories, so Instagram trying to gain a competitive edge on TikTok should be no surprise.
You may only be using Instagram scarcely, but to fully take advantage of all the features Instagram has to offer, collaborate with a social media company like Bright Age that stays up to date on new changes to social media. We can help coordinate an Instagram management strategy that will best suit the needs of your business.
