Instagram has announced that it will launch several new features to make it easier for users to connect with their friends and followers on the photo and video sharing platform. The Meta-owned service has introduced new features including Notes, Honest Stories, Group Profiles, Collaborative Collections and more. The notes feature allows users to update their friends with text and emojis, and replies to notes will arrive in the user’s inbox as Direct Messages (DMs).
The company announced the new features via a blog entry on Tuesday. The first feature is called Notes and allows users to create a short post of up to 60 characters with text and emoji. Users can go to the top of their inbox and then select followers to follow back or others from their existing Close Friends list to share notes with. Once done, it will appear at the top of their friends’ inboxes for 24 hours, similar to an Instagram story. Users can review the replies to their notes in their DMs.
Instagram said the note-taking feature gives people a casual and spontaneous way to express themselves and connect with their friends and followers. The other introduced feature allows users to nominate friends to participate in “Add Yours” in stories via a new “Add your nomination” feature, which can be accessed by tapping the “Share” button.
The company is also working on a group profile feature
Photo credit: Instagram
Meanwhile, Instagram’s candid stories feature allows users to click candid photo from Stories camera and share the real-time activity with their friends and followers. It will only be visible to those who also share their own honest story. Meta is also testing a similar feature for Facebook, and the feature appears to be inspired by the BeReal application, which is gaining popularity around the world.
The Meta-owned service has also introduced a group profile feature, allowing users to create and join a profile to share posts and stories with their friends in a dedicated shared group. It is shared only with group members. In addition, the app is also testing the Collaborative Collections feature – a new way to connect with friends about their mutual interests.
Users can save posts in a shared collection in the group or in private DMs. They need to start or add to a collaborative collection by saving a post directly from their feed. You can even DM a post to a friend and then save it, the company says.
