It has just finished the first semester of 2018. This means that it is time, once again, for another publication of Instagram updates. See all the changes and new features that come to the platform.
This month, we have four new features. Two that can work for brand advantages, and two that can affect the way our followers use the platform.
So, although we do not have new stickers or camera effects for Stories like we usually do, we’ll have a lot to talk about.
Let’s take a look at the new features that emerged during the month of August:
New: Instagram alerts users when their friends are online
Now, Instagram allows users to know when their friends are online through their direct message feature. This works the same as Facebook does with Messenger.
The idea that they are launching is that it makes it easier to connect with the friends and brands with which you want to chat. So this lets them know when they are available.
Like Facebook, the online status will be indicated with a bright green dot. These are great Instagram updates.
In addition to having that green dot in the direct message part of the application, it will also appear in the list of friends and real Instagram followers.
You will only see these updates for people who actually follow your account or have connected with you before. Also, this is visible as long as they do not deactivate the indicator online.
New Instagram updates: time management tools
We mentioned a few months ago that Facebook and Instagram were testing time management tools. These would help people better manage their time on the platforms. Or at least to be more aware of it.
There is a new activity board that can be found in the “Settings” tab in any of the applications. This will show you how much you have used the application per day so you can follow it carefully.
These metrics are specific: there is no rounding up or down. They will show you the average daily time spent on Instagram last week.
You can also configure alerts. They work to inform you once you have reached fifteen minutes, one hour, two hours or other time intervals on the platform that day.
This new update will not make the platform take you out once the time is up. However, it will make users more aware of how their time is spent. This can be very revealing to see that you spent three hours a day traveling for just one day.
Theoretically, this could affect the number of people who remain on Instagram. We all know that we spend too much time on social media, after all, and we continue to do it anyway.
New: advertising solutions for game brands
There are new types of advertising solutions that will be launched soon for advertisers and brands in the gaming industry.
In the next month, we will see a new feature for mobile app installation ads called camera for Stories. This will allow game marketing specialists to optimize not only downloads also the performance of the compromised game applications.