26 Jun
Among all social media platforms, Instagram has been a tough competitor being one of the most distinguished players on the landscape. With a non-stop growing fanbase, ceasing development is out of the question for this platform. Reaching the middle of 2022, Instagram has been testing and proposing some new updates.
Here are some of the newest features in the pipeline and how they can affect brands and creators:
1- Will Instagram start hiding stories?
Some users and social media experts spotted that Instagram is testing a new layout where stories will auto-collapse to only 3 stories for each user by default, while excessive stories will be hidden. In case a follower wants to tune in to the whole story, they can tap a “Show All” prompt.
If this feature comes to life, creators who depend on stories for their main content will suffer. With a great chance that audiences might miss important stories, capitalizing on stories might reach an end. We just have to wait and see!
2- Full-screen videos and photos
Don’t we all love viewing Instagram stories and reels in full-screen mode? Standard in-feed photos and videos are being tested now for this new format. Instagram 9×16 feed photos and videos are currently on trial to be able to dominate the entire mobile screen for a more enhanced experience and better viewing. This feature will be great for educational content, infographics, fashion deets, and more!
3- Post-pinning is in the future
Pinned tweets on Twitter and pinned posts on Facebook groups are the present, but pinned Instagram posts are the future. Another feature that is being tested for Instagram is pinning posts to the top of your profile to make important posts immediately visible to followers. If this takes place, creators and brands will be able to pin new product announcements, competition posts, and top-performing content to increase engagement and drive higher results.
4- Updates to Instagram Reel length
Ever since their launch in 2020, Instagram reels have rapidly developed from being 30 seconds long to 60 seconds and now they are increasing to 90 seconds. This extremely popular engagement-boosting Instagram feature has become a top valuable tool for brands and creators across the platform, so increasing the reel length will definitely bring them more benefit. Despite the fact that shorter videos might have higher completion rates, longer reels may be created for videos such as tutorials and may include music, stickers, effects or more to increase engagement.
5- New enhanced tagging features
You must be wondering, what’s there to be renewed in tagging? Well, Instagram is updating tagging in two ways. First, product tagging is planned to be specific to the extent that you can now tag an exact pair of shoes or that new shirt from your favorite brand. This feature is now up and running in the U.S. and might be rolled out to more countries soon. For influencer marketing or worth-of-mouth advertising, this feature is expected to make a big difference in product marketing. The second tagging feature that Instagram is launching is “enhanced people tags”, where creators can select a category for themselves to appear next to their name, such as “songwriter”, “photographer”, “designers” or more. This will help creators establish a personal identity as well as help them receive credit for their work and enable them to find more opportunities.
Some of these updates might take a while to launch, but all we know is Instagram is ready to shake up the digital scene with its constant development to meet creator and user demands. Who’s excited?
