Instagram has become the platform for social media updates and launching new features regularly. With over 1 billion users, Instagram is generating the highest engagement rates. With every new Instagram update, the application is evolving into something bigger and better. It has already become one of the most influential platforms on social media.

Instagram is launching a new feature or stopping an older one almost every week now. This can be challenging for all, so here is the list of Instagram updates 2020 and 2021 for you to check through.

Instagram is no longer a Photo-sharing app.

Instagram has become the most famous social media platform with more than 140 million users. Instagram always keeps updating its features which leads to the highest engagement rates. Instagram is now no longer a photo-sharing app. It is much more than that. The new feature launched by Instagram allows people to show full-screen videos on their Instagram feed rather than scroll through pictures captured by their friends.

The users can make the video more immersive by having a whole screen experience. Instagram will also show recommendations on topics that the users are not following. As said by Mosseri, the company is looking to bend towards video and entertainment after watching the success of their competitors Youtube and Tiktok. This feature was inspired by the fact that most Instagram users use Instagram to get entertained. More updates are also going to be launched soon, which will focus more on ‘creators’.

Citation: An Introduction to Instagram Reels like No Other

Instagram Live Room

With this feature, you can hang out live with three people at the same time. This was one of the user’s most requested features, and with this, you can have a live discussion via Instagram. It will help the hosts have more interactive Q&A sessions, host a talk show or engage and collaborate with more artists, and hang with your friends.

Instagram and Facebook Cross-App Messaging

This update was spoken about last year in September, and it has been added now, where you can message from Instagram to somebody on your friend list on Facebook. It also lets you have a video chat or share post posts across different apps. From your Message Delivery Settings on Facebook, you manage these message options.

Recently Deleted Feature

Instagram has added a recently Deleted Feature tab to help you get your deleted posts or videos back. You can also get your stories back for 24 hours, as they will stay in this folder for that much time. Photos, videos, IGTV and reels are stored in this folder for 30 days.

Professional Dashboard

With so much professional and marketing work happening on the Gram, this dashboard is a lifesaver for all. This professional dashboard becomes your main tab to track your account in an instant. This dashboard contains information like:

• Overall account performance
• Promotions
• Instagram Shopping
• Instagram Insights
• Branded content approvals
• Saved Replies

Instagram amends its nudity policy to allow health-related content.

After a removed post, Facebook updated Instagram’s nudity policy that showed breast cancer symptoms in a carousel of eight photos. The board decided to overturn this decision and create room for health-related posts with some nudity in them to be shown. Instagram has been updating its story features, too, with new and improved interactive stickers.

Donation Sticker 

The user can select a non-profit organization for people to donate to, and the organization will receive all the money you raise.

DM me sticker

This promotes messaging interaction; this sticker was introduced to help brands and sellers show their products with a CTA ‘get more info. This will help them to have a productive discussion about the product.

Stay At Home Challenge sticker.

For the past year, we have been experiencing life from home, and therefore, online challenges are becoming very popular. This sticker helps you join such fun challenges and perform them in your home. Hashtags are used to make the obstacles more popular and increase their reach. This is an important reminder for people that the pandemic is not yet over and we need to stay at home for the safety of our family and ourselves. Using this sticker will change the colour of your story ring.

Food Order Sticker

This sticker helps you order food from your favourite restaurants or take away; by clicking on it, you are taken to the food delivery partners website directly. Very convenient for everyone.

Instagram also launched a Gift card sticker and supported small businesses stickers used by people to act, promote, or get things done. So we can safely say that until we start operating normally in our natural world, the virtual world of social media, if used positively, can help us create some use that has a long-lasting impact on everyone.