Instagram just may be the fastest growing social media platform in existence these days, especially when viewed through the lens of user engagement and interaction. Boasting an astonishing 500 million active users daily, who press the ‘like’ button an astounding 4.2 billion times per day, there are literally no other social media platforms which can compare to that kind of interaction.
Being well aware of its currently soaring popularity, Instagram is working feverishly to extend and increase that popularity by rolling out new updates and features constantly which engage their users more fully, and which ensure that their platform stays relevant to the masses. In that context, there are a number of new features which are being worked on at Instagram which are likely to be released in the coming year.
Three of those new features, in particular, have just been spotted as being under development, and are expected to add significant value to the user experience on Instagram. Social media code hackers have discovered some Instagram tools which are currently undergoing development, and which will provide some interesting new features to users, assuming that they are released to the general public.
The first of these new features is one which will allow you to sort through your follower lists, either by the most recent addition date or by the most remote addition date. A second new feature is a music option in the style of singing karaoke which would be available through the Stories program already available in Instagram. The third new feature is one which provides a search bar for Android users, which is similar to the one which iOS users already enjoy.
Value of the new features
Especially for business users, the new features may have some very useful benefits. For instance, when you’re trying to locate your longest-running supporters, all you have to do is sort your followers’ list to see which ones are the oldest. It will also be much easier to identify those followers who are the most recent additions, in case you want to specifically reach out to them.
Of course, you’ll also have access to locations and other details which can be used to refine your marketing campaigns, and the ways that you reach out to specifically targeted users. In effect, this will potentially provide a number of new opportunities for connecting with specific groups of users among the general population of your followers.
Obviously, this same thing could have been done prior to the new sort feature, but it would’ve taken much longer, and it would’ve involved a much more tedious process to go through an entire list to find a specific target group. For companies which have a large number of followers, this would have proven problematic, and most likely would have been avoided just because of its time-consuming nature.
A relatively minor new feature which is also likely to be released in the near future by Instagram is adding a new search bar so that users can post likes on their Android mobile devices. This new search bar is already available for iOS users, so the Android capability will now make it available to all users of mobile devices.
The third feature currently being tested by Instagram, and which will presumably be released in the near future, is a karaoke-style tool which makes use of music videos with lyrics and would be used in conjunction with Instagram Stories. This will add significantly to the sharing options you have for your music on the platform.
Music-sharing options
Instagram has been seeking ways of including more music-sharing options on their platform, so as to capitalize on the music rights deals which have been secured by their parent company, Facebook. They are also striving to achieve greater interactive capacity in music-sharing in response to growing user demand.
One of the reasons that Instagram has decided to delve into additional music-sharing options is because of the soaring popularity of short-form video platform TikTok. Since TikTok is primarily based on clips which are inspired by music, it’s obvious that music clips are of primary importance to a large segment of the social media audience, and Instagram would like to capitalize on that fact.
Other features in the pipeline
There are a few additional features undergoing development at Instagram which are expected to be released in the coming year, and which are likely to significantly add to the user experience on the platform. One of these is IGTV, which is a standalone app that gives users the capability of uploading long-form, vertical video content which consumes a full screen when displayed.
Although this is considered a standalone app, it does integrate with the main Instagram platform, so that any of your Instagram followers can be notified when you want to share new content through IGTV. A new tweak on this feature allows users to share previews of IGTV content across main Instagram news feeds.
Instagram will also be removing all images which violate their self-harm policy, so those vulnerable users will be protected from these harmful images. For instance, videos depicting users cutting themselves will no longer be allowed on Instagram, nor will videos depicting healed scars from such activities be tolerated. While this is not something that would affect most business users on the platform, there are some companies which are a bit edgier and will be forced to take notice of this new feature and policy.
Rollout dates
Of course, it must be stated that Instagram has not announced rollout dates for any of these new features, which means that it is far from certain that they will indeed be made available to the general public. However, the fact that each of these three features is currently undergoing testing would seem to indicate that the social media platform does indeed have plans for their eventual release and that they will be made available to users. Stay tuned for future announcements from Instagram regarding the availability of any, or all three of these coming upgrades.
