Instagram has announced two changes to the app that should make users happy. No, they haven’t changed the feed back to chronological order. However, they are allowing you to share friends’ stories and post longer videos.
Longer videos on Instagram
The current time limit for Instagram videos posted in the feed is one minute, although stories allows users to stack multiple 15-second videos. The long form video will be vertical format, and will possibly allow videos up to an hour in length. The new feature may give Instagram an advantage against YouTube, which is currently the most popular social media channel. Although still in development, the option will be available soon.
Sharing friends’ stories
Sharing friends’ stories became possible last week.. If a friend tags you in their story, you’ll receive a notification, and have the option to add it to your own story. Like any other clip on your story, it will remain visible for 24 hours. It will also link back to the account that originally posted it. But the feature can only be used on public-facing accounts to respect people’s privacy settings.
A Facebook notification icon
Another update Instagram has added, which is less helpful, is inserting a Facebook notification icon in the upper left corner. Not sure why they think it’s necessary to add notifications for one app inside another, but our best guess is that it’s Facebook’s sad attempt to draw back users who have been fleeing the platform.
Which of the new updates are you most excited about?