Meta has rolled out new updates for Instagram more consistently in the month of October to keep users interested and more satisfied. Let’s break down each update one by one:
Table of Contents
Polls in Comment Streams
Since October 19th, Instagram started allowing some users to create polls in the comments on their posts.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced the test to his broadcast channel, noting that polls can be added to the comments on both regular feed posts as well as Reels. It’s just a small test for now, but Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his own update that it will be “rolling out to everyone soon.”
While the feature has been available on Stories via the stickers for years now, with Instagram wanting to drive more users’ attention and interactions to the main feed, adding it to comments is another way of giving creators the opportunity to milk their content for more engagement.
The Nearby Feed
This feature aims to spotlight public content from users and businesses in your local area. It’s a concept that’s already thriving in the Chinese version of TikTok, known as “Douyin,” where local content promotion is a cornerstone of the app’s success. Snapchat also has had such a feature on its application for years.
Application researcher Alessandro Paluzzi took to X to share a sneak peek of Instagram’s upcoming “Nearby” feed in Stories.
#Instagram is working on Nearby Stories 👀 pic.twitter.com/JRbv0saLFV
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) October 24, 2023
Video Clips in Instagram’s Notes
The Notes feature (short notes, under 60 characters long that you can post to followers) available in Instagram’s DMs is extremely popular amongst teenagers and younger audiences. Back in June, Meta said that over 100 million teen accounts had shared a Note in the preceding 90 days.
Building on that, since such an audience is also more aligned with short-form videos, the application has been experimenting with selfie videos in the feature, providing a moving, active element to Notes.
Post by @mattnavarraView on Threads
Instagram says that the option is in limited testing for now, with a further expansion coming in the future.
Collaborative Carousel Posts
After testing it internally over the last few months, Instagram has now launched a new, live test of its collaborative posts option, which will enable others to contribute to carousel feed posts.
This will give users the ability to allow others to submit photos or videos to be included within their carousel post. For example, if you are uploading pictures from a party, or a group outing, you’ll be able to ask others to add their own pictures to create a collaborative collection.
These updates are likely to help boost engagement in the social media application and will drive group and individual actions away from DMs onto the main feed, which is what Instagram has been aiming to do in 2023.
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