Instagram News & Updates

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Facebook-owned Instagram has rolled out a slew of long-requested features. The new update bundles changes like the new options for users to turn off comments from their post. It also comes with a feature to remove followers from private accounts, a feature has been requested time and again over the years.
Instagram has introduced most of these new features with an aim to make the app much more safe, giving its users more control over their accounts. In a blog post, Kevin Systrom, the Co-Founder & CEO of Instagram, says that these updates will make the platform a positive place for self-expression and will keep people safe.

More control over comments

Now, Instagram is all about pictures, videos and now GIFs, however, but whatever conversation that takes place on the platform is either comments or direct messages. While users always had control over the direct messages, comments have still been tough to manage. It’s not news that social media has all kinds of people, happy and positive, and cynical and judgemental. Therefore, two new features by the platform is giving more power to users now.
Instagram is rolling out the ability for users to turn off comments on any post. Previously this was only available for a small number of accounts. In a few weeks, it will be available for everyone. To do that, go to “Advanced Settings” before you put up a post and then select “Turn Off Commenting.” And in case you change your mind, you can tap the menu and turn commenting back on.

In the coming weeks, Instagram is also adding the ability to like comments by tapping a heart icon next to any comment, much like how Facebook comes with a like button for comments. With the idea of making the platform more safe, not long ago, Instagram had launched the ability to filter comments based on keywords. This was an important step in giving users more control over the comments on their posts.

Remove followers from private accounts

I don’t know about you, but I have really been waiting for this feature for a really long time. Up until now how things worked was that, if you have a private account, the platform does seek your permission every time someone wishes to follow you, however, once you approved a follower, there was no simple way to undo that decision without blocking them. Now, with the new feature update, private account users can remove followers by going to their list of followers and tapping the menu next to any person’s name. The person will not be notified that you removed them as a follower.

Anonymous reporting for self-injury posts
While ago, Facebook had also rolled out this feature, which let you report anyone on your timeline who showed signs of self-harm or depression. This feature is now coming to Instagram. Therefor, if ever a user feels that someone they know on that platform may be thinking about injuring themselves, you can report it anonymously, and Instagram will connect that person to organizations that offer help.

Instagram now lets you remove followers, block comments, and more
 
Instagram has introduced a new feature that will allow you to bookmark posts for later viewing. Until now, if you ever missed out on any post or wanted to revisit it, you would be required to go back to the person’s profile and scan through to find the post. With the addition of Saved Posts, you can mark posts you want to remember and go through again later. The new feature is part of Instagram version 10.2 and has been rolled out for both Android and iOS users.

How Instagram’s Saved Posts feature works?

Starting today, with Instagram version 10.2, you will see a new bookmark icon underneath posts in your feed. Simply tap on it to save a post. All the saved posts are collected in a separate tab on your profile. The good thing here is that all the posts you bookmark are visible only to you.

To see the bookmarked posts, go to your profile and tap on the bookmark icon. This will lead you to the gallery of saved content. It is to be noted that the Saved Posts feature doesn’t mean you can actually save the images or videos, but only bookmark them for later viewing, similar to Facebook’s save links feature. If the owner of the post removes that particular post, it will no longer appear in your bookmarks section. The feature is currently available only for the mobile version of Instagram and has not been extended to the web version yet. Hence, the saved posts will also not be visible on the web version.

Instagram recently introduced a lot of features mimicking rival service Snapchat that pioneered disappearing photo-sharing service. Last month, the company introduced disappearing live video along with disappearing messaging feature. The live video is similar to Facebook Live but expires after 24 hours. Additionally, users cannot watch a recap or save the video. This is in contrast to parent company’s Live feature which allows one to save live broadcasts to their profile so that it can be viewed later.

Meanwhile, the Instagram Direct feature works akin to Snapchat in which messages or videos shared between users or groups disappear after been viewed twice. To send a disappearing Direct message or video, simply swipe right on the app’s homescreen and then capture a video or photo. Now tap on the arrow to send it privately to a friend or group. Whatever you send will disappear after being viewed twice.

As there is always a way around saving such disappearing posts by taking a screenshot, Instagram rolled out a new alerts feature to notify users if their private temporary message was saved as a screenshot by their friends. This particular feature is only limited to the disappearing Direct posts and not every post that you take a screenshot of.

Instagram introduces Saved Posts, lets you bookmark photos and videos for later viewing
 
wewake said:
Ya bro that's what I want :) I have 61K Followers on Instagram [emoji14]
Wow. That's really huge bro. You are kind of social media celebrity then. [emoji12]
 
Instagram has rolled out two more features that allows users to add stickers to posts and capture videos “hands-free”. According to a report in the Next Web on Tuesday, users can now add stickers to videos and photo stories through a sticker button that shows up next to the drawing tool.

The feature includes specific stickers for the weather, current time and location and there are a bunch of holiday stickers like Christmas, Hannukah and all. Instagram has also added a “hands-free” for video recording. Now the users do not have to hold down the video button to record a video anymore.

“Just tap once to start, and tap again to finish — like your regular camera app already does,” the report noted. With the new addition, users can also add more text to their photos and videos by tapping the text button to keep on adding more instances.

With the help of a slider that appears in the Instagram, users can adjust the text size too, including automatic text wrap so that it is not chopped off the sides of screen. iOS users can also save their entire story from the past 24 hours as a single video. The features are available on the latest versions of Instagram (10.3) for iOS and Android.

Instagram Stories updated with stickers, hands-free video recording
 
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