What new features has Instagram introduced recently?
Instagram Marketing API Extensions
The Instagram Marketing API allows third-party platforms to schedule and publish ads, with this new addition providing more ways to customize your IG ads by tagging products directly within your social media management applications. Throughout the year, Instagram also added ad placements in search through the API in March and story scheduling through the Instagram Graph API in May. Now you have many more ways to manage your IG ads and organic content.
Instagram brings news to Stories
Instagram is testing three new features in stories. A Nearby feed that supports local businesses, custom stickers from object photos, and highlighting comments from profile posts.
Nearby feed
The first new feature is a new function that displays content posted in a specific location. The new “Nearby” function will highlight public content from users and businesses in your vicinity. The aim is to increase user engagement and support the promotion of local businesses. You can find the feature on the main Instagram page next to shared stories.
Custom stickers
The second feature is creating cutouts of objects directly from your photos, similar to what is available on iPhone devices. The sticker is then saved in the engagement tools of stories and can be reused. The new tool can identify specific objects in a photo, cut them out in isolation, and insert them into the content. According to Instagram, it will be possible to create stickers not only from your own photos in the mobile device gallery but also from relevant images that you see publicly on Instagram. Besides stories, you can also use these stickers in reels videos.
Highlight post comments
The third new feature is the ability to highlight a selected comment on posts in your stories. By sharing selected comments in stories, you can build a stronger bond with your followers and thus increase the engagement metrics of your profile.
Welcome polls in comments
Instagram will allow users to add interactive polls to comments on feed posts and reels videos. Polls themselves are not new on Instagram, as they were previously available in stories and messages. However, this simple and fun form of interaction has proven effective and has become a popular tool for sharing opinions and engaging with the content of other users. This new feature can be a great way for creators and businesses to get feedback and increase interaction with their audience.
Another attempt to make "Notes" more visible
The latest update in our article is the ability to add videos to notes in the messages tab. This feature is intended to revive notes and help them stand out among other content. Instagram believes that this new option will be especially successful with younger audiences, who have previously shown interest in notes. Young users shared notes ten times more often than older users, and over 20% of notes created by young users receive responses from other users. This new feature includes short videos, which could be particularly attractive for younger generations, as they are most prevalent among them.
Polls in comments and adding videos to Notes are now being gradually rolled out on Instagram and will soon be available globally. With these new features, Instagram should become a more fun and interactive environment for everyday use.
