We’ve been talking about Instagram a lot lately, and there’s a good reason for that. The app just can’t stop, won’t stop adding new features and it seems like every week, we have interesting new changes to tell you about. Normally, they just announce one new feature at a time, like the recent new focus mode, but this time, they’ve surprised us with a whole goody bag full of changes: the possibility to share Stories from Spotify, new camera effects, private video chat, and a new Explore tab. These new changes will reach our phones in the upcoming weeks, but we’re here to give you a sneak peak into how they’ll work.
Instagram Stories now lets us share directly from Spotify and GoPro
I don’t know about you, but one of the ways I use Instagram Stories is to share what I’m listening to on Spotify. It’s extremely typical to go to the music streaming app and take a screenshot of what’s playing, and Instagram knows it. That’s why the new feature they’ve added makes this task a whole lot easier: to share whatever you’re listening to on Spotify, all you have to do is tap the new Instagram Stories button and then just add whatever bling you want to take your story to the next level. Or, you know, just leave it the way it is.
This new share feature also works with whatever you record through GoPro and it’s expected that in the future, more apps will join the party. Best of all, you don’t even have to connect your accounts to do it.
New third-party camera effects for our Stories
If, for some strange reason, the camera effects provided in Instagram Stories aren’t enough for you, don’t fret. From now on, you’ll find new masks, text styles, and stickers through third-party designs. This is something we’ve already seen on Facebook, but it’s now arrived on Instagram Stories so we can use content created by third-parties like the NBA dunk cam, Ariana Grande, Buzzfeed, Vogue, and more.
You’ll be able to use these third-party effects by tapping the button “Try it on” which you’ll see in the posts that have them.
Live video chats with up to four participants
The live videos on Instagram have become a total success. It’s normal to find people recording live videos at all times of the day, and according to Instagram’s blog, there are more than 100 million users who watch or share these broadcasts every day. This has led the app to the next step, which is to allow private video chats. This new feature will allow up to four people to participate and will make communication a lot easier.
Starting a video chat will be as easy as tapping the new camera icon in the upper right corner in our Direct conversations. Plus, you can continue looking at Stories or whatever you want while chatting – all you have to do is minimize the chat.
A new design for Explore
It’s about time the Explore tab got redesigned. This screen is getting pretty disorganized due to the multiple new features that Instagram has been adding. That’s why in the next few weeks we’ll see a new design where the content will be organized into different themes that you can explore however you like. What’s more, below you’ll see hashtags related to the post in case you want to continue discovering more specific content.
Instagram for Android on Uptodown [APK] | Download