New Instagram Features You Should Know About (October 2021)
The Instagram development team seems to be on X Games mode, so I wanted to put you up to speed about the new features we have seen pop recently.
IMPORTANT: these new features, and how quickly you understand and use them, will not make or break your business’s Instagram or sales!
So don't worry if you're overwhelmed about all the tips you've been seeing on Instagram.
Okay, ready?
New Instagram Features You Should Know About (October 2021
This first new Instagram feature deserves it’s own paragraph because it’s very exciting:
Instagram announced it will now allow EVERY ACCOUNT TO SHARE LINKS IN STORIES!
Historically, only accounts with over 10k followers had access to share links in stories via the swipe up feature. But after much testing — and requests by small businesses and creators who want to monetize Instagram and generate more sales, Instagram switched the swipe up to a link sticker and now has also made the big announcement that every account gets access!
To see your link sticker, go to stories, upload a photo or record your story, then tap the stickers icon on the top of your screen and find the link sticker there.
You may have to update the app and possibly wait some time too. Instagram doesn’t roll out everything to everyone at once, so be patient.
Now other let’s look at other new features, that are also nice updates to the app:
Posting from computer! Definitely the most exciting of all updates is that you can now post from the Instagram website. I have always recommended people do the least amount of work from their phones because of boundaries, so this is great for those now scheduling their posts (our phones are always with us, so work will be with us 24/7 if you do lots of it from your phone).
Collaboration feature, where two accounts can simultaneously post the same post -- this is just about posting, not the content production itself. Check out this one from Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram
Schedule Lives - you can share a feed post with the live sticker that people can click and save your live. For this one, you have to go to your story camera like you're starting a live and you will see a calendar icon on the left side menu. Click there and follow the prompts.
Practice Lives - you're now able to start a live that is not visible to your audience. You can even hand pick people to test it with you. To use this, you can't go to the main live button. You have to go to the Live camera, tap the Audience button on the left side menu and you will be able to choose Public and Practice. Great feature to test our your background slides for your lives!
Instagram Video replaces IGTV - Instagram just replaced the not-so-popular IGTV with a Video tab in your profile. What changed? Saving Instagram Lives works the same way: you can still share your lives afterwards, write a caption, add hashtags and a cover and they will be on the Video tab. Not many changes there.
However, anytime you post any animated posts in your profile, IN ADDITION to your profile grid tab, they too will be shown in the video tab.
A new sticker that will allow friends to jump on a trend and share the same information in stories (honestly forgot the name, but I don't have it yet). Can be a fun one, or could just add more noise to stories. We shall see.
Account status - you can see if you have any violations to the terms (having serious ones or several will get your account deleted). Go to Settings > Account > Account Status
Link stickers replaced Swipe Ups (only for accounts above 10K or verified with the blue checkmark, and some lucky exceptions that were part of the test). Also not a big change, but important to note that old swipe ups still work, so you don't have to redo anything that is in your highlights.
Shares to stories are changing (this and the last one are not so new, but in case you missed it): Instagram has been testing different ways to share, so many people lost the little paper airplane under their posts and some got a reshare sticker which take a lot more steps, but is a good way to share someone else's post. Instagram is trying to minimize the lazy shares to stories that lower engagement, so when you want to share, consider a cute screenshot with your own words or video of why you love it.
Canva Video is here! This one is not about Instagram, but for me it's the most exciting of all. Canva launched their video capabilities and while it's still fairly simple, it will help a lot of us great better video and Reels content without having to leave the app. When you go to Canva you can choose video as the format you want to design and also browse video templates.
I think these are the major new features that you can use for your business on Instagram
Again, these aren't a huge deal or will affect your business. So if you feel out of the loop, don't worry.
Need Instagram content for the Holidays?
Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021).
This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content templates designed for engagement in their inbox.
Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneurs and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.