Instagram announced a bunch of New features for storiesincluding new interactive ways to share music, photos, and videos.
The most interesting new feature is called Reveal, and when applied, blurs the contents of a story post. The only way viewers can see the post is by sending a direct message to the person who shared it. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri He said That direct messages are an increasingly important part of the platform and that stories and direct messages account for most of Instagram's growth. Requiring a DM to view content is the next evolution of this – and will no doubt be used as an engagement hack by creators hoping to boost the interactivity of their stories.
Another feature, Frames, places a Polaroid overlay on photos that start out gray. When users shake their phones, an image appears — much like what many people do with actual Polaroid photos. Which is funny, because you actually no It's supposed to shake up Polaroid, and the company itself He tells people not to do that As the film develops (“We recommend placing the developing image in a pocket or bag to hide it from bright light”). The tire advantage was first foot During Coachella in April.
Instagram is also adding a music-based template feature that allows users to share songs to their Stories with prompts like “Favorite song on X album” or “If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life.” It's called Add Yours Music, and it's based on the existing story prompt template for photos.
Instagram is undergoing changes aimed at promoting original content from users. The biggest change in this context came earlier this week, when the company said it would make reposted or aggregated content essentially invisible in recommendations, rather than replacing it with the original version of the post. More importantly, recommended content from accounts you don't follow is more of a focus than ever before – which isn't exactly comforting news for creators who are upset about not reaching a large following.
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