Are You Up on Instagram’s New Features?

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, popped up on the social platform last week in a post announcing four new features he said were “built for creators that make it easier to engage and share.”

And that’s apt—at least three of the four new features could be considered game-changers for avid Instagram creators, including Instagram sellers (a blossoming retailer type in jewelry) and social marketers of all stripes.

Let’s get into the just-dropped capabilities:

Reels can now be up to 90 seconds long

Instagram’s Reels feature—which lets you splice together photos and videos with music—is the platform’s response to TikTok, a platform that came out of the gate encouraging mish-mash creativity. Because Instagram wants to grow Reels, it rewards users for making and posting Reels by pushing more traffic to those creators. The max time limit for a Reels used to be 60 seconds. Now it’s a hearty 90 seconds, which will give marketers more time to collage more product and delve deeper into their storytelling.

You can now import original audio into Reels

Reels users have long complained about the feature’s music selection, which was until last week comprised mainly of unknown tunes by under-the-radar artists. You’d spend valuable time building a beautiful Reel and then must comb through songs you don’t know to find a suitable soundtrack for it (rubbish!). Instagram finally responded to the chorus of complaints, and now users can import any music/sound they choose. Huzzah!

You can now add interactive stickers to Reels

Interactive “stickers” on Instagram are those tap-ables that include polls and questions. Now you can put them on Reels, rendering your content more engaging with fun-feeling calls to action.

You can now pin up to three posts to your grid

Good news for those pining for a precisely curated Instagram feed or “grid”: The platform now allows you to “pin” up to three posts to the top of your page for as long as you want. The change allows for more flexibility in how users present themselves on the platform, and it’s also handy for marketers, who won’t have to endlessly repost promotions and campaigns to keep them visible for visitors.

Photo by Omkar Patyane

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