On Thursday, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri appeared live to demonstrate numerous new features that have recently arrived on the popular social networking platform.
Mosseri discussed the recently introduced Playback functionality for Instagram Stories in a video (below) shared on Twitter. Playback allows you to compile a year-end collection of up to ten Stories to share with your audience.
“Now that the year is coming to an end, and the New Year is a time to reflect on the year that has passed and think about the year ahead, we wanted to create something that allows us to commemorate some of your best moments from 2021,” Mosseri explained.
To utilize Playback, you must have created at least three tales in the previous 12 months or have your Stories Archive turned on. Instagram’s algorithms will make suggestions for your choices — great if you have a lot of Stories to choose from — but you may also make your own decisions.
However, use the feature quickly because it is only available till the end of December.
New Features
We’ve rolled out some pretty fun new features this week that I wanted to share with you:
– #IGPlayback
– Reels Visual Replies
– Profile Embed (US only for now)Any new features you’d like to see? Let me know! pic.twitter.com/p8mvtJn4kA
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 16, 2021
The Instagram CEO also discussed the new Reels Visual Replies function, which allows you to respond to a comment with a Reels video lasting up to 60 seconds. Mosseri encourages creators to embrace the tool as another opportunity to engage with followers, which might lead to increased exposure on the site and possibly followers as well. Any increase in interaction on Instagram’s platform is good news for the company since it helps it attract more ad dollars and promotes shareholder confidence.
When you try to reply to a comment, you’ll see the option for Visual Replies. Simply choose it to make a video response, and the comment will show as a sticker.
Finally, Profile Embeds allow you to embed a small version of your Instagram profile on a website or blog. It’s essentially an expansion of the existing feature, which allows you to embed Instagram photographs and videos on other websites.
“Perhaps you want to exhibit your Instagram post elsewhere, or connect to someone else’s,” Mosseri suggested in his reply. Profile Embeds will be available first in the United States, with additional nations scheduled to follow soon.
In other Instagram news, the platform recently announced the return of a version of the chronological feed, a presentation style that many in the Instagram community have missed since the business discontinued it in 2016.