New Instagram Updates and Features for Marketers in 2024

Instagram never stops to surprise us. While the world is trying to stay resilient through these tough economic times, it is exciting to see how Instagram rapidly develops new features and functionalities to tackle main business issues and help users support their favourite brands.

And now, more than ever, keeping up with what’s new on Instagram can be quite challenging. There are new Instagram features almost every week.

New Instagram Features August 2024 

Profile links with Images for verified profiles

This new feature allows verified Instagram profiles to get an image on the profile links. 

The image appears as shown below: 

Why is this useful? 

The better display of the link with an image will increase interest and engagement, helping you get more links to your website or shops. 

Instagram users can now add a song to their profiles

In an unexpected update, Instagram announced that its users can now further customize their bios by adding a song unique to them:

While not a big feature, it’s a welcome one, as it gives users a chance to express their creativity and personality.

Instagram will let users pin DMs

One of the most recent Instagram leaks has revealed that the platform is working on letting users pin messages in their chats:

As you can see from the screenshot above, the context menu that pops up when holding a message in your inbox has extra options for pinning and unpinning messages.

Naturally, this feature will help you save and quickly find valuable information that has been shared in the chat.

Instagram bumps up the number of photos and videos in carousels to 20

Instagram now allows its users to add up to 20 different photos, videos, or mixed media in a carousel post:

This update is a much-welcomed addition to the app for the platform’s creators, as they won’t have to pick and choose any longer between the content they want to add. Plus, the update has been released in Europe as well!

Instagram users can now DM accounts mentioned in stories

Radu Oncescu, an Instagram and Threads leaker, has caught a significant messaging update for Instagram (previously reported by @mattnavarra). Namely, users will be able to start private conversations with accounts mentioned in stories:

As you can see in the above example, Instagram is prompting the user to open a new chat with the friends mentioned in said story.

Instagram’s ‘Highlights’ are getting a dedicated tab

Per Alessandro Paluzzi, a famous tech leaker, Instagram is testing out a new home for its ‘Highlights’ feature, and it’s right there in the profile grid:

As you can imagine, introducing this change will free up some UI headroom in the main profile page as your Highlights icons will be removed from the main strip

Instagram is introducing a new metric called ‘Views’ for every type of post

As revealed by Mosseri in a recent vlog, and as described in an official carousel post on the Instagram for Business account, the platform is introducing significant improvements to the ‘Insights’ section of the app:

Now known as ‘Views’ this new primary metric will track the performance of all your Instagram content (regardless of its format).

As you can imagine, Reel plays will not be relabeled as Reel views, plus, you’ll be able to track the same metric with Photos, Carousels, and Stories:

Instagram is launching their new AI tools for creators and regular users

As revealed by Mosseri, Instagram’s chief, in an Instagram reel, the platform is ready to start rolling out their new AI functionalities in the U.S.

The first feature is called ‘Creator AI’ and will be available for established creators looking for new ways to engage with their fans without spending time to do it.

As you can see in this screenshot, they will be able to customize their own AI version, which will respond to fans based on their content and information:

The second feature is available to everyone and it’s called ‘AI Characters’. Users can basically build their own character based on any idea and customize them with a personality of their own choosing:

Once created, users can put them in their profiles to entertain and inspire their followers.

Meta is enhancing their AI chatbot and expanding its reach

Meta has just announced the expansion of its AI chatbot to seven more regions: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Cameroon.

Additionally, users can now interact with the bot in seven new languages: French, German, Hindi, Hindi-Romanized Script, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

On top of all that, there are now new advanced AI tools and the option to choose different Meta AI models for different tasks.

For instance, the latest ‘Imagine me’ feature will convert a photo of you in any fantastical scenario you can imagine, such as this one:

Or, you can easily add or remove objects, edit them, or replace them with other objects while keeping the background intact.

‘Edit with AI’ is also coming as a button to already generated images that will streamline the entire process:

That’s not all: from AI image generative tools everywhere across Meta’s user touchpoints to the most advanced Meta AI model, users are being ushered into a new age of AI everywhere around them

New Instagram Features July 2024 

This week, Instagram has enhanced the reel editing experience by allowing users to add up to 20 tracks to their reel videos:

This change is meant to support original creators in their pursuit of generating the best content they can.

After all, everyone wants to be able to add all kinds of text, stickers, and clips to their reel videos, and the option to add different audio tracks to all these elements just makes sense.

These unique audio mixes can then be saved and reused by the wider community. (edited) 

You can now add Notes to Posts and Reels

Adam Mosseri—Instagram’s chief—has announced that his team has launched a new feature for adding ‘Notes’ (the platform’s newest engagement booster) to posts and Reels:

After ‘Notes’ has become a huge success (especially with the younger audience), Meta has trying to increase the versatility of the feature across its apps.

To use this functionality, users only have to tap the paper plane icon and tap ‘Add note’. They will also have to choose the audience of their note.

 Meta is testing out product overlay ads in Reels

To capitalize on the popularity of Reels, Meta is launching a new advertising method: the option to add ads as overlays in your Reels.

That said, this option is currently in its testing phase and is only being rolled out to a select number of advertisers.

Here’s an example of how the feature might look like once it’s fully launched:

Meta further adds that it’s considering adding these ads either as banners on Reels or as video snippets in between Reels.