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Instagram detailed several new features aimed at promoting connections on its platform, both with friends and with people who share similar interests.
Notes, short posts of up to 60 characters containing only text and emojis, began rolling out globally this week.
Instagrammers can go to the top of their inbox, choose followers they follow back or people on their Close Friends list and compose their Note, which will appear at the top of recipients’ inboxes for 24 hours.
Replies to Notes will appear as direct messages in the Note writer’s inbox.
Instagram said in a blog post, “During testing, we learned that people liked having a lightweight, easy way to share what’s on their mind and start conversations. From asking for recommendations to sharing what they’re up to, Notes give people a casual and spontaneous way to express themselves and connect with each other.”
The platform is now testing Collaborative Connections, which enables users to save posts to a Collaborative Collaboration either within a group or a one-on-one DM so that they can connect over shared interests.
A new type of profile is being tested, Group Profiles, which will be able to share posts and Stories in a dedicated, shared profile with friends. Content shared in this fashion will only go to members of the group, and not all followers, and it will be posted to the Group Profile, not the profile of the individual user.
Speaking of Stories, Instagram is also testing Candid Stories, a clone of BeReal, in which users will receive a notification once per day prompting them to share a candid image from their Stories camera of what they are doing at that moment.
Instagrammers who are not interested can turn off the daily notifications in settings, and Instagram said a similar BeReal clone feature is being tested in Facebook Stories.
Finally, the platform is testing a new prompt for the Add Yours feature it added to Stories last November, which lets people nominate a specific friend to participate when they see a prompt that reminds them of that friend by tapping “pass it on.”
Instagram wrote, “Connecting with friends is a core part of the Instagram experience, and we’ll continue to test and build features that help you feel closer with them.”
