Instagram is bringing a handful of new features to direct messages, including photo editing capabilities and stickers. Users will be able to edit photos by drawing on them or adding stickers before sending them through DM, similar to editing features that already exist for Instagram Stories.
The company also said users will be able to make their own custom stickers from existing photos and use them in DMs. Everything put together, the photo editing tools in chats are expanding to be closer to Stories.
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Instagram Working To Enhance User Experience
Instagram is also adding new chat themes that change the look and design of DMs, like a fall theme or one promoting a new album by pop star Sabrina Carpenter. Users will also be able to add a birthday cake icon to Notes, the away status-like blurb that is visible at the top of users’ DM inboxes.
Direct messaging has been an era of growth for the platform, according to company head Adam Mosseri, so it’s not surprising that there’s an emphasis placed on new tools and features.
In fact, messaging is so important that Instagram uses it in part to rank content on the platform: in July, Mosseri stated that a key thing Instagram sees for ranking is how much a post is sent via DMs. “Think about making content that people would want to send to a friend, to someone that they care about, and it will help your reach over time,” he said in a video.
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Instagram To Soon Let You Comment On Instagram Stories
The Meta-owned app seems to be adding the ability to leave comments on Instagram Stories, the posts that many people use even more than the traditional feed posts these days. Earlier, replying to an Instagram Story sent a private message visible only to the person who posted the content. The addition of comments adds a more public way to respond to Stories.
The ability to comment in the first place is more limited, though; only people who follow the post and who the poster follows back will be able to comment on the Story. Instagram has explained how most of it works in this video.
Similar to Stories, the comments are temporary and will last only for 24 hours; Instagram spokesperson Emily Norfolk says users will get the option to turn comments on or off for any Story they share. It’s not clear whether comments will be archived after a Story post expires.