Instagram Gets Biggest Update to Stories Yet
Instagram adds even more tools to help you share your stories with friends.
Instagram introduced new tools on Thursday to make sharing stories on the photo-sharing app more fun and useful.
Links, Boomerang and Mentions will all start showing up in your Instagram app when you update it.
Boomerang is Instagram’s version of a Live Photo: simply select “Boomerang” mode from the new format picker (under the record button) and when you tap to capture, Instagram will stitch together several burst photos into a cute little video that plays forward and backward (hence the name of the feature).
Mentions will also let you connect to friends more directly. Just like on Twitter or Facebook (which owns Instagram), you’ll start typing a friend’s username preceded by the @ character, select them from the popup list, and you’ll see them tagged in your story with a little underline. Anyone seeing that story will be able to tap the mention and go to the user’s Instagram profile.
If you’re mentioned in someone’s story, you’ll get a notification in your Direct messages, unless you don’t follow that person, in which case you’ll get a notification in message requests.
Links are for verified accounts (at least for now). You’ll see them popping up in your feed.
Watching someone’s story and want to dig deeper? You may spot “See More” links at the bottom of some stories. This is a test that lets verified accounts add links so it’s easy to learn more. From discovering the latest music by Chance the Rapper (@chancetherapper) to learning about a new movie starring Dwayne Johnson (@therock) or reading a related article from Bustle (@bustle), tap “See More” or swipe up to view the link right inside the app.
- Instagram BlogThe new features are available now as a free update to Instagram, version 9.7, on iOS, Android, and Windows 10 devices.
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