Instagram never fails to amaze us with its super-duper new features every year! Like recently, this popular platform launched Reels that quickly grabbed millions of eyeballs onto it. Since TikTok got banned, creators were looking for a platform that could fill out TikTok's space as well! And hopefully, Mark Zuckerberg turned out to be our Secret Santa, who fulfilled all of our wishes by launching this hot tab onto the popular social media channel.
From changing the logo to adding story features, IGTV, and now Reels, Instagram has made a positive remark on everyone's mind. Today, Instagram is not only about posting a picture or video, but it has become something that could really take your career off to a great extent. Now what more updates have this platform come up with? Well, to help you with that, we came up with this article where we are going to talk about the latest Instagram Updates to give your marketing and career the extra edge.
So, without making any further intro, let's begin with the article!
1. Following categories and filter options
Well, this latest update on Instagram makes it super easy for any user to manage their followings and provides separate tabs showing who they interact with the most and least. If you go through your following least, then you will see that some new additions have been made.
Two separate categories: 'The people with whom you interact the most' and 'the people with whom you have interacted the least'!
- A tiny two-way arrow icon that lets users sort list their followings by 'latest followed' and 'earliest followed'!
- For the users who are looking to socialize more with the people they are following, this update/feature can help them determine who is worth engaging with!
2. Hidden likes
You might have heard the news or already have seen the change in your account! But Instagram is testing and hiding the number of likes your posts are getting under the post.
Well, this change will be visible to all the visitors to your feed! However, one can personally see the like count by checking their post insights. And Instagram has stated that this small change is only to help people with their overall mental health by taking away the show-off pressure.
3. Arrow pen in the Instagram story
Whether it's about Instagram ads, or motivational videos, this platform has really grabbed way more users. One of the excellent ways to grab any user's attention within your stories is to take the help of the draw arrows option. Let's take an example drawing an arrow that shows up from the bottom of your screen will help users to swipe up and will also make them visit your Instagram profile as well.
4. Age restrictions
Now, Instagram allows its users to set up the age restriction for their respective accounts. We haven't seen many people implementing this latest Instagram updates, as no one wants to limit the number of people to get access to their page. Yet, users who are posting content that is not suited for particular ages can take the help of this feature.
Note: Unsuitable contents are already getting blocked by Instagram directly.
5. Creator account
Instagram added a third profile option to its existing fleet. Now, you can select between personal, business, and a creator account. So, what's the big difference in it? Well, not much, but the creator account option is equipped for all the content creators and provides them a small edge on their account's growth by adding a new insights feature.
6. Dark theme
Did you recently wake up with a dark Instagram feed? Well, congrats, you are a part of their beta test. Users operating systems iOS 13 and Android 10, can experience the darker version of the most popular and loved social media channel.
7. Anti-bullying profile restrictions
Instagram has recently introduced a very new feature known as- 'Restrict' that helps users to block the interactions from accounts that are more likely to spread hate, using abusive languages, bully anyone, or are talking unnecessary things for no reason. And point to be noted, this feature is a bit different from blocking anyone! Because they will not get blocked! They will still be able to leave comments that they can only see.
8. Removing followers
It really doesn't matter what your engagement or posting strategy is, fake and bot accounts will still manage to creep in and disturb your follower's list. Such types of accounts never like or comment on any of your posts. And this is the reason why they are known as ghost followers. But having too many such types of followers might bring your engagement level drastically down, and you don't want that to happen! Right? Don't worry, as Instagram has itself launched an excellent feature with the help of which you can easily remove those fake followers.
Yes, we are talking about the 'Remove Follower' feature! All you have to do is to go onto your follower's list, select the account you believe is a bot, then there only you will get a three-dot option available on the right-hand side, click on it, and tap on the 'remove' option.
Note: Well, doing this will for sure lower your followers count, but will definitely increase your engagement rate!
Time to wrap it up!
So, there you have it! A small but detailed breakdown of all the essential Instagram updates that were released this year. Well, 2020 made Instagram bring out a lot of new features, and we are hoping 2021 could make it bring far better updates and features.
