Tag: instagram

  • Instagram is working on a more immersive news feed

    Instagram is working on a more immersive news feed

    Instagram has been implementing new features like crazy in the past couple of months. The product tagging option we told you about is now live in the US, and the new feed options announced in January are already live as well.

    Now there’s another cool feature in the works, according to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri who tweeted the following: “We’re testing a new, immersive viewing experience in the main Home feed.” This immersive experience means basically taller photos and videos in a new feed view, similar to Instagram Stories.

    Another change is the increase in post recommendations from people or accounts you don’t actually follow. While somewhat counterintuitive, this change aims to keep people engaged for a longer period of time.

    This might annoy some users but there will be an option to personalize the feed to your liking (although the details are not clear at this point) and hopefully minimize these strangers appearing in your recommendation panel.

    During the short video posted on Twitter, Mosseri also showed a glimpse of the new interface and how the new feed will look like. The experience is not full-screen per se, as users would still be able to see the home, search, Reels, and other sections under the image (take a look at the screenshot below).

    According to Mosseri, the new features will be rolling out to users that are part of Instagram’s testing program in the coming weeks. Let us know what you think about this new Instagram feed in the comments section below.

  • Instagram to adjust its algorithm to give preference to original content

    Instagram to adjust its algorithm to give preference to original content

    Sick of seeing only TikToks on Reels? So is Instagram. On a more serious note, Instagram is tweaking its algorithm not only to crack down on reposts but also to incentivize creators to produce original content.

    Adam Mosseri, the current head of Instagram, announced yesterday some interesting changes coming to the social media platform. In addition to expanding the functionality of tags, Instagram is introducing a ranking for originality and implementing it in its algorithm.

    This is the next step in Instagram’s concrete efforts to encourage creators to produce original content for the app. The idea is pretty straightforward – more creativity, fewer reposts.

    This is how Mosseri explains the rationale behind the recent changes in a video posted on Twitter.

    In a subsequent tweet, Mosseri expressed concerns over the long-term future of Instagram, if the platform does not stop to “overvalue aggregators”. The changes to the algorithm are a step in the right direction as they will aim to single out aggregator accounts and handle them accordingly.

    The exact way in which Instagram will filter “original” content currently remains unclear, however. Mosseri himself is not entirely confident in the platform’s ability to do so consistently. Some trial and error will likely be required before the mechanism is refined

    Ultimately, this is just another milestone in Meta’s vision. Instagram and Facebook have steadily been transitioning away from their previous purpose of keeping people connected. They now aim to be, above all, platforms for creators with the recent changes reflecting that perfectly.

  • Instagram could let you react with a voice message to a Story

    Instagram could let you react with a voice message to a Story

    Instagram is allegedly working on a new Snapchat-like way for you to respond to your friends’ Stories. According to Alessandro Paluzzi (a developer who discovers upcoming new features by reverse engineering apps), Instagram is working on a feature that will allow users to create voice messages as another way to react to Instagram Stories.

    In a tweet, Alessandro Paluzzi shared an image coming from Instagram Stories. In Paluzzi’s screenshot, we can see that there is a new microphone icon located in the area where the Story replies are situated, which will most likely allow you to record a voice message and then send it as a reaction to an Instagram Story.

    It should be noted that although Alessandro Paluzzi has found the voice message reaction feature in the code of the Instagram app, this does not mean that Instagram will release the feature. Sometimes developers create a feature that, for some reason, they don’t implement into their application. There is also no word from Instagram about this potential feature.

    The new reply category that Instagram is developing is another proof that Instagram is trying to make its platform better. As we previously reported, Instagram no longer sends a direct message to a Story’s author when you like a Story. The change was made because Instagram wanted to make the DMs more focused on conversations between you and your loved ones.

  • Instagram brings parental controls to the US, confirms NFTs are coming soon

    Instagram brings parental controls to the US, confirms NFTs are coming soon

    Instagram’s parent company, Meta announced back in December it will bring new parental controls to the social network at some point this year. Starting today, these parental controls are rolling out to Instagram users in the United States, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri confirmed this week.

    First off, a new Family Center is making its way to Instagram users in the US, which will act as a hub to access supervision tools and other related resources. These tools are available on Instagram today, and will be rolling out in VR in May.

    Additionally, Family Center includes a new education hub where parents can access resources like articles from experts, videos and tips on topics like how to talk to teens about social media. Video tutorials will also be available through the hub on how to make use of the new supervision tools.

    The first set of parental supervision tools available today on Instagram will allow parents to view how much time their teens spend on the social network and set time limits, be notified when their teen shares they’ve reported someone, as well as view and receive updates on what accounts their teens follow and the accounts that follow their teens.

    More features will be added to parental supervision tools over the next few months, including the option to set hours during which teens can use Instagram and the ability for more than one parent to supervise a teen’s account.

    In other news, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will be coming to Instagram. During his speech at SXSW, Meta’s Zuckerberg revealed the information but didn’t exactly detail how the company plans to implement the digital collectible. However, he did say that “over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”

  • 6 Essential Tips to Get More Instagram Followers

    6 Essential Tips to Get More Instagram Followers

    Do you want more Instagram followers? Are you looking for ways to get your account seen by more people? If so, you’re in the right place. There are many different ways to increase the number of Instagram followers that you have. For example, you can buy Instagram followers via one of the best sites listed on Earthweb. In this blog post, we will discuss six essential tips on how to get real followers on Instagram. By following these tips, you can improve your chances of gaining more followers and expanding your reach on this social media platform. Keep reading for more information!

    Engage and Create Engagement

    The very first thing that you should focus on doing to get more Instagram followers is to engage as much as you can, as well as create engagement. Why is it important to engage? By engaging, you are getting your account out there, and the more people who see it, the higher the likelihood of someone clicking on your profile.

    In terms of creating engagement, there are many ways to go about doing this. For example, you can use Instagram Stories to create polls or ask your followers questions. You could even reply to comments on your posts, or comment on other people’s posts. Why? The higher your engagement levels, the more likely it is for Instagram to suggest your account or content.

    Post the Best Content

    That leads us to the second tip, which is to always post the best content. What is one thing that people are primarily looking for when using Instagram? To be entertained, and boring or bad content doesn’t help them to achieve that.

    In addition to being entertained, great content is shareable, which means that the better your content is, the higher the likelihood of it being shared. Not only does this increase your reach, but it also helps to gain followers, since someone might want to see more of what you are posting.

    Try Using Reels

    The next thing that you should consider doing if you want to increase the number of followers you have is to try using Reels. Reels are essentially short videos that have a soundtrack overlaying them. Typically, these videos are entertaining, funny, or give a few small tips.

    Why should you use Reels? Using Reels is a great way to increase your reach since they are shown to people who are not your followers. More than this, Reels are shown to users with specific interests, which means that you can target a specific audience. Research shows that many people are now basically just using Reels on Instagram.

    Observe the Competition

    One of the best things that you could do for the growth of your account is to observe the competition to see what they are doing. This is something that you should do regularly since content seems to change quite quickly on Instagram, especially if you are working within a niche, as you should be.

    To do this, all you need to do is choose an account that is doing very well within your niche, and keep an eye on the content that they are creating, how they are presenting it, what hashtags they are using, and more.

    Use Hashtags and UGC

    That leads us to the next tip which is to always use hashtags when you are posting on Instagram. Hashtags group content that has similar hashtags, which means that if you use them correctly, you will be able to target your audience. This is because if anyone searches for a hashtag that you have used, there is a chance your content will appear in the search results.

    Another great idea is to use user-generated content and to do that, you will need to create branded hashtags or start hashtag challenges. User-generated content is great because it increases engagement, as well as removes some of the weight from needing to consistently generate content yourself.

    Be Consistent

    Finally, perhaps the most important rule that you should follow is to always be consistent with what you are posting. This doesn’t necessarily just mean the quality of the content, it also means the frequency at which you post, so you don’t become irrelevant.

    More than this, it also means staying within a niche, having a specific aesthetic or theme with your posts, and keeping engagement levels up.

  • Instagram removes some of its Daily Limit notifications time options

    Instagram removes some of its Daily Limit notifications time options

    It seems like Meta is less keen on helping you keep on top of your social media usage, and more specifically, on Instagram. The company has quietly updated its “Daily Limit” feature, which was designed to let you receive a notification if you spend too much time on the app. Now, instead of adding more control to the feature, Meta has decided to reduce the time options for these notifications.

    The Daily Limit notification feature was introduced back in 2018, and it allowed you to receive notifications on your Instagram usage after spending as little as 10 minutes per day on the app. It seems that Meta now thinks 10 minutes is just too little time to spend on Instagram and has now raised this limit to 30 minutes.

    The setting interface has also been slightly redesigned, and it now shows the longer time options first in the list (the three hours one). Despite that though, you can still have a full-screen reminder to leave the app after 10 minutes through the “Take a Break” feature, but we can’t help but think that Instagram has made it harder for users to monitor their app usage and the time they spend on the social network.

    The company has stated in a tweet that this little update is aimed at making the Daily Limit option less confusing for users, but this change does come after Meta’s Q4 2021 report. In the report, the company revealed it wasn’t making as much money and as consequence, its share value dropped significantly.

    The thing is, spending more time on Instagram gives more opportunities to be targeted with advertisements. iOS users do have a workaround with iPhone’s Screen Time feature that allows you to set limits for any app anyways.

    We reported recently about Meta’s Q4 2021 earnings report and the subsequent decline in Meta shares’ value, which seems to be continuing to go down and is now (at the time of writing) hit around $206.16. At the beginning of this month, the drop was quite significant and Meta dropped by a whopping $73.95 and was at $249.05.

    For reference, on February 2, before the big drop in stock value, the company’s shares were $323. It seems for less than a month, Meta’s shares’ value dropped by more than $100.

    Meta’s report on revenue indicated that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (a feature that lets iOS users opt-out of third-party tracking for targeted ads), alongside other factors, had the company lose some money and caused it to reshape the way its ad tech worked, at least for iPhone and iPad users.

    On the other hand, many of you may know that Meta is the new name for Facebook the company, and the company rebranded in October. It seems the company considers the metaverse to be the future of social media. The metaverse, for those of you who don’t know, is basically a virtual reality world where you can interact with others with avatars that represent you.

    Despite the rebranding though, it seems Facebook has been struggling recently. Not long ago, there was a whistleblower named Frances Haugen who shared some concerning facts about how Facebook and Instagram chose profit over the safety of their users. Among the things the whistleblower disclosed, were some documents indicating the company was aware of how Instagram could impact young users’ mental health negatively but chose to ignore it.

    Since then, Instagram got the “Take a Break” feature aimed at helping teenagers (or anyone really) to reduce their time on Instagram.

  • On Instagram, you can now send and receive private Story likes without piling up unnecessary DMs

    On Instagram, you can now send and receive private Story likes without piling up unnecessary DMs

    Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced on Twitter that Instagram is introducing a new feature called “Private Story Likes,” which allows Instagram users to like a Story without the platform sending a direct message to the Story’s author.

    Before the Private Story Likes feature, to respond to a Story you could only send a direct message or an emoji reaction to the creator of the Story and when you reacted to someone’s Story, they always received a response in their DM inbox.

    Users who have the Private Story Likes feature may now notice a new heart icon located between the Send Message field and the paper airplane sharing button when watching someone’s Story.

    Also, the likes you receive or give on stories will be private and won’t have public counts, which means that only you will be able to see who liked your Story. If you want to see who liked your Story, you need to go to the viewer sheet of that particular Story, and there you will see a heart icon next to every viewer who liked your Story.

    According to Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s idea for the Private Story Likes feature is for ‘people to express more support to each other’ and also to ‘clean up DMs a little bit.’ Adam Mosseri explained that Instagram’s goal is to make DMs more focused on conversations between you and your friends.

  • Important new features are finally coming to Instagram

    Important new features are finally coming to Instagram

    I don’t think I’m exaggerating saying that Instagram is overwhelmed with requests from users with hacked accounts. Although the company has been trying to make the process of recovering a hacked account easier, there’s no better defense against hackers than prevention, something that Instagram has been lacking lately.

    Lately, the social network giant has been pushing out security tools that help prevent your Instagram account from being hacked. They’re probably not foolproof, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. After introducing Security Checkup for Instagram users who believe their accounts have been hacked last year, this feature is now rolling out to everyone on all platforms.

    It’s a nifty feature that teaches Instagram users to secure their accounts including checking login activity, reviewing profile information, confirming the accounts that share login information and updating account recovery contact information (i.e., phone number, email address). The new feature can be found in the Profile menu / Settings / Security / Security Checkup.

    To make your Instagram account more secure, we also recommend enabling two-factor authentication via WhatsApp, which is already available on certain countries. The 2FA feature can also be used with a phone number or an authenticator app like Duo Mobile and Google Authentication.

    Another important new feature coming to Instagram today is the ability to delete posts in bulk. It might seem a simple feature to have, but Instagram didn’t have it until recently. You can also archive/delete stories, IGTV and Reels, as well as your entire interactions such as comments, likes, story sticker reactions, etc.

    Along with the ability to delete and archive content in bulk, Instagram also added the option to sort and filter content and interactions by date and search for past comments, likes and stories replies from specific date ranges. All these tools to manage your accounts can be found in the Profile, just make sure to tap in the upper right corner and then choose “Your activity.

    Finally, there’s a new feature that Instagram is now testing, which will allow people who have lost access to their account to ask their friends to confirm their identity and regain access to their account. No word on when exactly we will have access to this feature, but more details are promised soon.

  • See which five new features Instagram is rumored to be working on

    See which five new features Instagram is rumored to be working on

    It looks like Instagram is working on a few new features. Leaker Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer, and a reverse engineer shared on Twitter that Instagram could be working on:

    • An option to share Reels directly on Facebook
    • Improving the Story and Reels editor’s guidelines
    • Enabling you to leave a message if you can’t answer a video or audio call
    • Business users to be able to receive audio calls without a visible phone number
    • The ability to share upcoming live videos as a Story and outside Instagram

    An option to share Reels directly on Facebook

    From the tweet below, we can see that a new “Share to Facebook” option would be available in the Reel’s sharing menu, possibly enabling you to share your Reel directly to Facebook without the need for additional steps.
    Currently, if a user wants to share a Reel on Facebook, they have to enable the “Recommend on Facebook” option, then they have to choose “Turn on for this Reel,” and then the user has to return and try sharing the Reel on Facebook.

    Apparently, Instagram wants to make its platform as easy as possible to use.

    As we can see from the shared Tweet, Instagram has been working on improving its guidelines in the Story and Reels editor. When the user tried to move the written text to the bin icon, a guideline appeared, which told the user how to delete the text.

    As demonstrated in the Tweet, Instagram is working on a “Reply” button that would appear along with the “Accept” and “Decline” call options when a user receives a video or audio call and can’t take the call at that moment. When a user taps the new “Reply” button, a few default responses would appear, along with the option to send a custom reply message.

    Currently, if a business user wants to be reachable through audio calls on Instagram, they must reveal their phone number. From the Tweet, we see that this may become a thing of the past, and everyone may be able to start a call with a business account without the need for a phone number.

    Want to share a live video as a Story? It looks like Instagram is working on a way to make it possible. From the tweet below, we see two new possible options for sharing a live video: “share to Story” and “share externally.”

    The “share externally” feature would possibly enable you to share your live video outside of Instagram, but currently, there is no information on how exactly this feature would work.

    There you have it, not one, not two, but five new features that may come to Instagram. Sadly, there is no information on when we could expect them to be released.

    Something that we do know, however, is that Instagram has begun rolling out the ability to express yourself via your own virtual avatar in direct message chats and in Stories. Currently, this new feature is available only in the US, Canada, and Mexico, but in the coming months, it will be available in more countries as well.

  • Longer Instagram Reels could soon be a thing

    Longer Instagram Reels could soon be a thing

    According to a new leak, Instagram could be working on allowing users to create longer Reels than is currently possible. Alessandro Paluzzi, a popular tipster and reverse engineer on Twitter who has released many a juicy preview of upcoming app updates, has discovered that the Meta-owned platform is preparing to introduce a 90-second limit on Instagram Reels, to replace the current 60-second cap on publications.

    While it’s not a guarantee, Paluzzi has been right many times before, and using his skills as a mobile developer to reverse-engineering the Instagram app allows him to see strings of code from upcoming updates that are invisible to the rest of us.

    Instagram Reels, giving users the ability to create short-form video clips, launched back in 2020. It was modeled after TikTok, which was already exponentially growing in popularity just for this reason. After Instagram Reels took off immediately, YouTube decided to copy the platform and create its own version of TikTok, which it called YouTube Shorts.

    Although Shorts are still a beta feature on YouTube, they have already become massively popular with the top creators, who are using them to capture viewers’ attention on upcoming videos, advertise their merch, make announcements, or post quick updates on how their lives are going.

    And now, Instagram seems to be paving the way for another possible change to short-form video style by raising the upper limit to video length, which is still at 60 seconds for YouTube Shorts.

    While some people are getting excited at the prospect of adding even more material to their Reels, other have expressed concern that this won’t help users succeed on the platform, because people’s attention spans are only getting shorter—not longer.

    Remember, from back in the day when YouTube became popular, the algorithms have been favoring increasingly shorter and shorter videos. TikTok’s most popular posts are under a minute long, as are the relatively new YouTube Shorts. Do you think 90-second Reels will take off, or nah? Do let us know in the comments!

  • Instagram will try to hide “potentially harmful” content

    Instagram will try to hide “potentially harmful” content

    In the vast cyber jungle we call The Internet there are potential threats lurking in every dark corner, every thick bush. Now, dramatic preludes aside, there is a lot of bad content around the web – such as the pornography that spam bots were peddling on Instagram.

    The popular social network has been constantly testing new methods to filter potentially harmful content, and even halted the development of Instagram Kids, following recent backlash. Now the company has shared another slew of changes on its official blog, aimed to limit the visibility of potentially harmful content.

    Here’s a breakdown of all the changes:

    • Instagram will continue to remove content that goes against its Community Guideline, but now posts that may contain bullying or hate speech, or that may encourage violence, will be shown further down in Feed and Stories.
    • Instagram will down-rank potentially upsetting posts in your Feed based on your history of reporting content.
    • These changes only impact individual posts, not accounts overall. Instagram will also note the violators why their posts have been removed.

    Instagram already has algorithms in place to flag harmful content but now the company is targeting borderline posts and potential gray zones. “To understand if something may break our rules, we’ll look at things like if a caption is similar to a caption that previously broke our rules,” Instagram wrote in an update.

    The second bullet point in the changelog means that Instagram will try to predict the posts you’re likely to report and preemptively down-rank them in your Feed.

    It’s also worth noting that up until now Instagram algorithms have tried to hide harmful content from parts of the app visible to the public users, such as Explore. With the aforementioned changes in place, these posts will also be down-ranked for users following the account posting such content. The changes are already in effect, so be careful what you post, guys and girls!

  • Instagram testing TikTok-like vertical scrolling for Stories

    Instagram testing TikTok-like vertical scrolling for Stories

    Instagram is working on ways it can better rival the crazy popular short-video-sharing platform TikTok, and a redesigned way to show Stories is one of them. The company announced such a feature will be coming back last year, but now, it has finally started appearing to some users for testing.

    The feature was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navara, and it seems Instagram is currently testing for some users located in Turkey. The update brings vertical scrolling to Stories, and in order to jump to the next user’s Stories, you need to swipe down, just as on TikTok. To view Stories from the same user, you still need to tap the left or right side of the screen.

    Additionally, the update was also received in Brazil, thus making us think that the tested feature has a more global rollout, or it has been expanding to more countries.

    The new feature immediately reminds us of TikTok, and it could as well be interpreted as an attempt by Instagram to better compete with the app with steadily growing popularity. What’s more, Instagram has also been making Stories more focused on video instead of just a simple photo.

    At the moment, it is unclear when this feature will be available to all users, as it is currently in its testing period.

    The feature we reported on above is not the only attempt that Instagram has recently made to better rival video-sharing TikTok.Back in December, Instagram also tested an increased maximum duration limit for videos in Stories. When posting videos in Stories, if they are longer than 15 seconds, they would get segmented into different Stories, and Instagram is currently working on amending this. It has been testing allowing up to 60 seconds of videos in Stories without segmentation.

    And let’s not forget to mention Reels: it is the more obvious TikTok-like feature on the social media platform. Instagram has been pushing for it to gain traction and popularity and is even offering a bonus of up to $10,000 for content creators that post Instagram Reels.

    Reels actually debuted back in 2020, but it hasn’t been gaining as much attention as the rival TikTok, which continues to rank quite high across all metrics of popularity. Recently, TikTok was even crowned as the “most visited website of 2021”, at least in a Cloudflare domain ranking. By the way, TikTok surpassed Google.com in this ranking!

    Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop Instagram-owner Meta to continue developing its services and enriching the user experience with new features. One particularly good feature that Instagram has recently announced and is planning to implement soon is a version of the chronological feed that vanished in 2016. Basically, Instagram will have three different options for your main feed: one dubbed Home (which will be the current one), one dubbed “Favorites”, and one dubbed “Following”. The latter will allow people to scroll through the posts of only the creators they have followed and view them in chronological order.

    For many people that would be quite handy as many users don’t like getting post recommendations from people that they don’t follow in their feed instead of the content of people they like and want to see more of.

    Another recent feature that Instagram is working on is called “Edit Grid”, and it will allow you to arrange the posts in your profile to your liking, regardless of the date the photo was published.

    Of course, all these features are currently in testing or under development and an official global release date has not been specified.

  • Instagram testing a new “Edit Grid” feature

    Instagram testing a new “Edit Grid” feature

    Facebook is busy adding new features to its sweet child Instagram, as it seems. According to the app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, the popular photo social network will be getting a cool new feature soon.

    Paluzzi posted a couple of images on Twitter, showing the new functionality in action. “Instagram is working on the ability to edit the profile grid allowing you to rearrange posts in any order you like,” wrote the researcher.

    The new “Edit Grid” option appears in the profile settings and allows users to re-arrange their profile gallery regardless of the date each photo was posted. This feature seems to be pretty useful, as it will allow people to choose what they want to show on their photo grid.

    Alessandro Paluzzi also shared some insight on new stickers Instagram has been working on lately. Among these is a new reaction emoji, although we’re not sure when will all these new features start rolling out.

    At the beginning of January, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced three new feed changes coming to the platform. Since these are already rolling out, users now have three new ways to sort their home screen – Home, Favorites, and Following.

    Home shows your feed organized the way you’re used to seeing it, while Favorites shows posts from accounts you’ve put a Star on. The third option will display posts from people you follow.

  • Phishing attacks are deceiving Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users

    Phishing attacks are deceiving Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users

    In an attempt to stop ongoing phishing attacks, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, filed a federal lawsuit in California court. Meta says that the attackers were trying to steal the login credentials of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users.

    The attackers created fake login pages that looked like Meta’s social media platforms to obtain Meta’s users’ login credentials. The goal was to deceive the users into entering their credentials, like usernames and passwords.

    Here’s what Jessica Romero, Meta’s director of platform and litigation, said about the phishing scheme: “Reports of phishing attacks have been on the rise across the industry, and we are taking this action to uncover the identities of the people behind the attack and stop their harmful conduct.”

    According to Meta’s lawsuit blog post, the phishing scam included more than 39,000 fake websites. In order to mask their attack, the deceivers used a relay service that redirected the internet traffic to their phishing pages while simultaneously concealing their real location and identities. The relay service also masked the online hosting providers of the defendants.

    In a statement about the case, Meta noted that phishing assaults have increased since March and that Meta has suspended thousands of URLs to such phishing sites. Although Meta doesn’t know who made the phishing sites, the lawsuit, according to Meta, is another step in its actions to protect people’s safety and privacy. The filed lawsuit by Meta shows the position of the company against those trying to abuse its platforms.

    In its blog post about the lawsuit, Meta stated that it would continue to fight the phishing attacks that try to deceive its customers and that it shares the phishing sites with other platforms so that they can block the attackers as well.

  • Instagram adds three new features in time for Christmas

    Instagram adds three new features in time for Christmas

    Instagram keeps on adding new features – such as the ability to post a 60-second video as a Story, and the planned content creators subscription service that is coming up soon. Now, just in time for the holiday season, the Facebook-owned company is adding three new features to the basket – Playback, Reel Visual Replies, and Profile Embed.

    Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared the news on his Twitter account, along with a cool short video to explain the new features in more detail. The new features are rolling up as we type, so be sure to check for updates and update your Instagram app when the new version hits your region.

    Now, back to the new features. The first one is called Playback and it’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s a way to relive old memories in form of Instagram stories. You must have at least three of those posted in order for Instagram to suggest you this feature, and it could contain up to 10 stories in total. The Playback feature will probably vanish after 2022 rolls in but Instagram could bring it back again next year.

    Next in line is Reel Visual Replies – this feature allows creators to take a comment and feature it in a 60-second Reel. In practice, this feature should increase engagement, and give creators a new tool to answer questions, and create more content. The Reels Visual Replies option can be found near the comment reply icon.

    The last new feature is called Profile Embed, and it’s the ability to embed an entire profile everywhere, thus offering a snapshot to their Instagram universe. While the first two features are already rolling out globally, this one is US-only.