It is Autumn and change is in the air! Instagram has rolled out a bunch of updates. Learn what’s new.

1. Option to post via desktop

My favourite of the updates. Creating Instagram posts has been restricted to the app, which is a pain if you’re managing IG for a business. But now you can post photos and video via the desktop version. Hooray! It’s also way easier to answer DMs.

2. Instagram ditches IGTV and combines everything but Reels into Instagram Video

IGTV is now under Video, and it looks a lot more like TikTok. Basically they have combined IGTV’s long-form video and Instagram Feed videos into a new section called “Instagram Video”. Very original. Anyway, it simplifies things, and does not impact Reels. If you were using IGTV, then your old videos should automatically show up here now. And if you were running IGTV ads, these are called “In-Stream Video Ads” now.

3. Live Video gets practice mode and live scheduling

It’s a bit scary to “go live.” Well, now you can enter Practice mode. This is super helpful if you have a guest who has never used IG Live. You can enter Practice mode and IG won’t notify your followers. Then when you’re ready, you can go live and open the audience. Another improvement is live scheduling. You can schedule live streams up to 3 months in advance. TIP: Share the event on Stories and in the Feed to promote it. Followers can choose to turn on reminder notifications for when the livestream happens and IG will notify them a day before and 15 min before.

4. IG Shops is here for the holidays

Starting Nov1, Instagram and Facebook will be hosting daily live Shopping experiences with brands like Benefit Cosmetics, Macy’s, and Walmart. I imagine it like the Late Late Toy Show on RTE in Ireland. But I suspect it will have all the commerce and none of the charm. The idea is to showcase the latest gifts and exclusive deals from the big brands but also to give IG users a Shop tab that curates products from the creators they follow. Here’s the announcement. And here’s a snippet of the Late Late Toy Show for those unfamiliar with this Irish mainstay for the holidays.

5. Swipe up is gone, Link sticker is here

At the end of August, IG ditched the swipe-up function in Stories and replaced it with Link Stickers. This is the way verified accounts or those with +10K followers share external links. If you’re lucky to have this feature, aim to place the sticker in the centre of the screen to avoid accidental clicks. Also some creators are putting a sticker over the Link sticker so the click still works but doesn’t look so ugly with the URL. 

6. IG Collabs let you team up and boost engagement

IG Collabs lets IG uses co-author content and share credit for the likes, views, and comments generated together. You can collaborate with another account on a piece of content on a Feed post or Reel, which then appears on both feeds and with each account as authors. Woohoo! This is a great way for publishers, festivals, authors, and booksellers to boost reach and engagement. Watch the instructions @shinewithnatasha 

7. Instagram rolled out several updates to Insights

IG is trying to provide more data to marketers. The new “accounts engaged” metric counts the number of accounts that engaged with the content of a business or creator in a given time period. There’s also “engaged audience” and “reached audience”, which show demographic information such as top age ranges, cities, countries, and genders, plus follower vs. non-follower breakdowns. Apparently there’s more visibility for creators who partner with brands that promote their posts with the paid partnership label. This offers more transparency to both partners in that both can now see the performance metrics, including reach, likes, comments, saves, and shares.

Coming soon?

• Australia and New Zealand IG users have a new feature called “Map Search” which lets them discover businesses and locations of interest on an in-app map. Presumably this will get rolled out to other countries if it’s successful. 
• And rumour has it that Google is working on deals for IG and TikTok to show up in its search results.