The holidays bring with them joyous emotions, festive reunions, and for many, the alluring thought of a boatload of gifts. With the Christmas countdown getting ever so lower, Meta has announced some new connection tools coming to Instagram. These additions are designed to lean into engagement trends, helping get people to share more of their personal interactions in the app.
What’s in Instagram’s Bag?
The first on the list is Instagram “Notes,” which is a new conversation-prompting option that will sit just above your inbox messages and highlight chat prompts from your connections. Notes appear like Stories within your inbox, with your connections able to pose a question to ignite discussions.
The option is another effort from ‘The Gram’ to lean into the trend of more people now interacting with the messages that they’re posting on their main Feed. Back in September, Meta explained that: “Most people use feeds to discover content and use messaging for deeper connections.”
Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri also noted that more interaction is indeed happening within private channels. Given this is where user engagement is now taking place, Instagram is keen to incorporate more ways to feed into the shift. It’s not hard to imagine hijackers abusing this for promotions, which will likely have people cutting them off as a result. Regardless of the initial feedback, Notes is rolling out to all users today.
Meta’s also looking to update its group chat function, with new group profiles that will only be visible to group members and collaborative collections. Group Profiles are shared profiles where users can post for the entertainment of the group. Collaborative Collections, meanwhile, allows you to save posts to a private collection within your group chat.
Meanwhile, on another front, Stories are slowly getting flooded with recommendations, which has, in a way, increased engagement. On that note, Meta is adding two new prompts to ‘help people more easily share in spontaneous, fun ways.’ The first of these is ‘Candid Stories’, which is essentially Instagram’s BeReal clone. Just like BeReal, Candid Stories will prompt users to share their ‘Candids’ among their connections, via a new option in the Stories camera. It only takes users to upload their first Candid for the app to then prompt them to capture and share daily ones. We have a separate piece specifically on how Instagram is essentially trying to replicate BeReal’s offer in the app, so go check that out if you want to see more of the parallels.
Lastly, Meta is looking to prompt more engagement with its ‘Add Yours’ sticker in Stories with a new “Pass It On” prompt to invite more users to take part. That’s it.
The Wrap
It’s hard to tell just where Instagram is now in its journey. The app is currently a bootleg fusion of TikTok and BeReal after changing from a photo-sharing app to a video platform. In the end, IG’s own identity is that of a shape-shifter that follows and copies whatever trends are the hottest, which has clearly worked in Instagram’s favor.
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