Instagram has introduced a bunch of new interactive Story stickers. One of them is called ‘Reveal,’ and it is intelligently created to boost DM conversations, which Instagram has lately been focusing more on.
The Reveal sticker blurs the content of the Story which can
be viewed only if the viewer DMs the user. This is really going to help creator
accounts that can rely on the feature to boost their DM inflow.
Meta has added a new default control setting to Instagram
and Threads, that limits recommendations of political content from accounts
that one doesn’t follow. Meta defines “political content” as posts about governments,
elections, and social topics.
The setting was first introduced in February and started
rolling out to more users since last week, but without any notifications
informing people about the update.
The option is available within “content preferences” in account settings as “Limit political content from people you don’t follow.” Although activated by default, it can be disabled by a user who wishes to see more political content on Meta’s apps. Meta also clarifies that the setting does not change the visibility of political content from accounts that a user follows.
Meta is making an important change to Instagram and Threads’
policy – limiting recommendation of content related to politics and social
issues from accounts that a user does not follow, across the platforms. Meta plans
to bring this update to Facebook some time later, too.
The changes will be implemented only in places where recommendations
are displayed to users, like Explore, Reels, in-feed recommendations, and
suggested users. No changes will be made to the way content is displayed from accounts
that a user follows. This means that accounts that aren’t eligible to be
recommended could still post political content that their followers will be
able to view in feed and Stories.
While users will be seeing less of political content by default, they would still be allowed to opt into seeing more of such content if they wish to. The option will be available in account settings, specifying content that is “likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large.”
Instagram has consistently worked on improving the in-app
experience for its teen users, ensuring a safe social space for them to engage
with others. Recently, Instagram has launched new content recommendation
controls that reduce teen users’ exposure to sensitive content, such as
involving the topic of self-harm.
Instagram has taken into consideration the potential
negative impact of a complex topic like self-harm on teens’ mental health. “We
will start to remove this type of content from teens’ experiences on Instagram
and Facebook, as well as other types of age-inappropriate content,” says the
social media company. Currently, there is already limited recommendations of
self-harm related content within Reels and Explore. Moving forward, these
restrictions will also be applied to Feed and Stories, even including content from
accounts that teen users follow.
Linked with this addition is another important safety restriction that would inform Instagram if a teen user searched for terms similar to suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders. This would enable Instagram to redirect the user to official help services when they search for such terms. Additionally, specific search results that are detected as potentially triggering will be entirely hidden from the users.
Instagram is reportedly working on a new Collections
feature. Collections allow users to save content of their interest that they
discover in the app, so they can access it any time later. Other than private
Collections, a collaborative Collections option was launched some time back
that has enabled users to save mutual interests in private chats. Adding on to
these variations, Instagram is now introducing public / profile Collections.
Evident from the name itself, public Collections will be displayed on users’ profiles that others can view. Additionally, users will be able to control who exactly can view their Collections. One downside of this is that it would make profiles appear cluttered, as plenty of profile display elements already exist on Instagram.
While the Notes feature on Instagram appears to be a less popular
medium of interaction in the app, it is actually not as underused among teen
users according to Meta’s insights. And so it makes sense why Instagram isn’t
taking a break from testing and rolling out all kinds of updates for Notes.
One of these latest updates has been uncovered by app
researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, who shared a sneak peek of a new addition called
‘Profile Notes.’ Although Instagram itself hasn’t revealed anything about
Profile Notes, it is easy to predict that these Notes would appear on users’
profiles.
Since last September, Instagram has been testing a new
engagement option of sharing feed posts and Reels with a ‘Close Friends’ list
or a select group of followers. The app is now officially rolling this functionality
out to all users.
Instagram is testing new updates that are meant to facilitate interaction among users in smaller groups. These include new ways to respond to Notes, an ‘Events’ feature, and a ‘Nearby feed’ for Stories.
Users will soon be able to reply to Notes with all
kinds of content: audio clips, photos, videos, GIFs, and stickers. Notes was
originally launched in December last year and has gained popularity mainly
among younger users. Instagram has since been adding a variety of engagement options
within the functionality, such as music, video clip loops, and more.
Meta’s ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram are now available to users in the EU users aged above 18 years. Meta has begun sending prompts on Facebook and Instagram to encourage users to sign up to the paid subscriptions.
The offerings have been developed in compliance with the latest EU ad policies, which Meta explains in the message within the prompts, and they are priced around $20 for a month. It costs €9.99 a month when a user makes a purchase on the web and €12.99 a month when they purchase through Google’s or Apple’s app stores.
Meta has announced that it is going to start offering new
subscriptions on Facebook and Instagram in November, which will allow users to
opt out of all ads on these platforms. Users who wish to continue accessing the
free versions of Instagram and Facebook will continue to see ads relevant to
them.
These subscriptions, or paid versions of the services, according
to Meta, have been developed in accordance with “evolving European regulations”
that demand social media platforms to provide a data tracking opt-out for their
users. Therefore, Meta’s offerings will only be available to users in the
EU, EEA and Switzerland.
The information of users who subscribe to the offering will not be used for ads, as opting out of ads means automatically avoiding related data tracking as well.
Instagram had been testing a new ‘collaborative posts’ functionality
for the past few months, and has now launched it in a live test. The option is
created to allow users to collaborate with each other and contribute to
carousel feed posts specifically.
To allow others to contribute to carousel posts, the user who is uploading the post will need to turn the option on before uploading the content. As a result, their followers will be allowed to add photos and/or videos to it. The owner of the post can then choose to approve the photos or videos in order for them to be added to the carousel.
Back in February, Instagram launched a new revenue generating
feature of ‘virtual gifts’ in Reels for creators in the US. The feature is now
being expanded to more regions around the world including Austria, Belgium, Colombia,
Denmark, Indonesia, and more.
The feature is accessible from a ‘Send Gift’ option displayed
as an overlay on Reels clips. Viewers will be able to send their favourite creators
virtual gifts by purchasing stars, that can be cashed out in various amounts, up
to $5.99. Creators that have agreed to Instagram’s Gifts Terms of Service will be
able to earn money from the gifts sent to them by viewers who appreciate and support
their content.
Subscribe Our Newsletter
