Instagram doesn’t shy away from playing around with new original features or cloning features from its rival apps – including crazy ones.
Instagram has been rolling out new features and testing even more interesting features this year and they’ll hopefully roll out for the public sooner rather than later.
Repost Labels on Reshared Posts on Stories
Instagram will start adding the “Reshared Post” label on Stories that have an Insta feed post shared on Stories.
Another label is “Created with Reels” for videos reshared from Instagram Reels.
New Video Layouts for Reels
Reels is testing out Video Layout to entice more creators on Instagram as it plays catch up with TikTok. If you’ve used Layouts on Stories, then Video Layouts has the same interface.
Users can now choose multiple layouts for their videos – horizontal, vertical or grid of 2 horizontal layers.
Voice over and Audio Mix on Reels for Android Users
These two features were available on Instagram’s iOS app and have began rolling out to a few Android users.
With Voiceover, you can record audio over a selected video while the audio mix feature will let you add a song track over a video with audio and tweak their volumes according to your preference.
New Quick Reply Stickers on Stories
Instagram will soon let users have new options when replying to Stories. They are testing quick reply stickers with different reactions as seen below.
Saving Instagram Stories as Drafts
You will soon be able to save your Instagram Stories as drafts. This will give creators the time to go back to their drafts and then post them at the most convenient time.
Here’s how this feature will look:
Add WhatsApp to Your Instagram profile
Instagram is looking to add a WhatsApp button. You’ll be able to add a WhatsApp number along your email, business phone number and business address.
This will probably come in handy for Business pages who already have WhatsApp Business accounts.
Ability To Share Guides on your Instagram Feed as a Post
Instagram will let users share Guides as posts on the regular feed. Social media managers are going to love this feature.
Quick Add Story Button
When Instagram revamped its user interface and reaaranged its buttons, it became harder to quickly post on Stories.
The new button now sits in the far right corner next to messages and notifications. Tapping on it to post a story is hectic as you have to navigate between the Post, Story, Reels, and Live tabs.
It now looks like Instagram is testing adding a single button on the far left with the “Add” label. It will live next to your current Insta Stories and other Stories in the Stories tab.
Quickly Record a Voice Message
Instagram will allow users to send voice messages more quickly by a single tap onth ereocrd button.
In the current version, you have press and hold to record one.
Preview Photo in Full Screen mode before sending in Direct message
Users will soon have the ability to view photos being sent in the DM a full screen preview before hitting send.
Watch how it works below:
Viewers liking Questions sent in an Insta Live session.
Instagram live has grown alot with people staying at home being entertained by their favourite celebrities or influencers.
In a live, viewers send in questions and now Instagram will make it possible for people to like the said questions for the hosts to answer.
Hopefully, Instagram will sort them by the number of likes to make it easier for hosts to respond to the most liked questions.
It’ll be interesting to see how these features roll out. We’ll keep you updated.
