One interesting thing about Instagram is how the platform creates an environment where users can engage and support their favorite brands. They do this through features and functionalities.
Social media marketers now have the opportunity to promote brands and businesses through the platform. Meanwhile, creators are presented with functionalities that will attract a bigger audience.
Instagram is still one of the best social media platforms, so it’s necessary that you know what’s new.
With TikTok lurking around the corners, Instagram has devoted time and resources to creating new features every year. This is to help keep the social media platform ahead of the game.
These new features are designed to benefit both creators and brands alike. So, if you’re an Instagram lover, you might be interested in knowing the latest features launched in 2022.
In this guide, we will point out some of the top new Instagram updates in features as of 2022.
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- Enhanced Tags
In March 2022, Instagram introduced a new feature known as “Enhanced Tags”. This feature is designed to allow users to give credits to creators for sharing interesting content on a daily basis.
It is the latest Metaverse feature. Users can now tag contributors and collaborators that worked behind the scenes of a post. This is a great way of giving credit to contributors.
For instance, celebrities can tag people that contributed to a particular post. Typically, they’d tag makeup artists, designers, and photographers. Recognizing these people will help find them new opportunities.
- Instagram Collaboration
Instagram users can now co-author content with other users on the platform.
For every content posted with the collab feature, users involved will share likes, comments, and even Instagram video views. This is down to the fact that the post appears on both profiles.
Collabs is a top new feature to explore in 2022 as it offers brands with business accounts the opportunity to collaborate with influencers. As a business, this is one feature that will increase your brand awareness.
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- Instagram Subscriptions
Instagram for business has gone up to a new level with the latest subscription feature made for content creators. People can now earn extra bucks for showcasing their creativity and talent.
When Instagram introduced subscriptions, the aim was to help content creators earn recurring monthly income on the platform. So far, it has been a welcome addition for this set of users.
Inspired by Facebook subscriptions, Instagram subscriptions are a monetization tool that helps users connect with brands and target audiences in order to get the needed support.
This new feature offers a great way to build a sustainable business as it will allow you to create exclusive content for your subscribers.
Series of tests have been carried out with some creators. So, here’s a breakdown of what to expect with this feature;
- Subscriber Lives: subscribers will have access to exclusive Instagram lives
- Subscriber Badges: creators can identify subscribers in the comment section
- Subscriber Stories: creators can create exclusive stories for their engaged followers
With this amazing feature, creators can now form a deeper connection with their audience while they get to earn a living.
Note: For now, this feature is only available for a selected few creators in the United States.
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- Social Fundraising
The global pandemic affected both small-scale and large-scale businesses. So, Instagram has stepped in to offer support through its “Social Fundraising” feature that was launched recently.
With this new feature, Instagram users can now create fundraisers for their businesses or social events. If you’re championing a social-economic cause, you can use this feature to raise more than your likes. You can use it to raise funds.
According to Instagram, this social fundraising feature is seen as a digital activism tool designed for responding to pressing global issues. It will help give brands a face on the world stage.
This feature looks great because people can use it to create fundraisers directly on Instagram.
Note: Every fundraiser you create will go through a review process before it goes live.
- Stories Auto-Caption
With the newly launched auto-caption on Instagram stories, contents are now more accessible with or without audio. Stories auto-caption has improved the way people engage with posts.
You will love this new feature if you prefer watching Instagram stories without audio. It automatically converts audio conversation in a video to text captions that people can read.
The beauty of this newly released feature lies in how the converted texts are displayed in the form of nice captions. Auto-caption is also available on Reels for some Instagram users.
- Add Yours Sticker
One of the latest Instagram features in 2022 is the “Add Yours” feature that was rolled out a few months back. This new sticker option allows users to respond to threads with their take.
You can now start your own “Add Yours” thread on Instagram stories to get more engagement.
Here’s how it works;
Add Yours comes in the form of a sticker designed for Instagram stories. When someone posts a prompt on their stories, other users can respond to the prompt with their own thoughts.
For instance; you can create an “Add Yours” sticker with the prompt “Cute Pet Pictures” …
This will prompt other users to reply to your story with cute pictures of their pets. Once the first reply has been added to the story, other users can tap the sticker to add their own pet pictures.
By adding their own spin on cute pet pictures, an interactive thread will be formed on the story.
The introduction of the “Add Yours” sticker will go down as one of the best features added to the Instagram platform. So far, the feature is known for kickstarting interesting Instagram trends and challenges.
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- Scheduling Live
Instagram users can now schedule live on their profiles. This new feature was introduced in January 2022 to the delight of content creators and brand influencers.
While the Live feature on Instagram has been available for quite a while, it made sense for Instagram to improve on it with this latest add-on. Users can now set it up on their profile.
There’s a Scheduling Live badge that will reveal the information of the Live on a user’s profile.
The badge increases Live visibility and allows users to get a notification the moment it starts.
Instagram Live GIF by Product Hunt @Giphy
- Chronological Feed
Instagram users can now arrange their feed in chronological order with this new feature.
Testing of the chronological order of the feed was announced earlier this year by Instagram CEO, Adma Mosseri. The feature comes with three options – Home, Favorites, and Following.
This will enable all Instagram users to choose how they want posts on Instagram to appear on their feed. So, you can now choose to see more posts from your favorites or those you’re following.
The algorithm is designed to allow users to see more of what they are interested in.
These top new Instagram features discussed in this guide are some of the latest currently. Learning how to use these new features will help you get more Instagram likes in 2022.
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Conclusion
Keeping up with the latest trends and features on Instagram can be quite challenging. This is due to the fact that loads of Instagram updates in features get rolled out from time to time.
Considering the competitive nature of social media platforms, some of these new Instagram feature updates come as no surprise. Without the additions, users can easily get bored.
While these new updates can be overwhelming, getting familiar with how to use them can make the features really attractive. That is why this guide was put together to enlighten you.