Meta is updating Instagram today with some familiar social network features from other services. For example, the photo- and video-sharing service is basically getting its own version of the classic retweet. Separately, Instagram continues to take inspiration from Snapchat with its own social map feature.
Instagram is two months shy of turning 15, and as a sign of maturity, we’re getting the first official repost button:
With reposts, you can repost public reels and feed posts, making it easier for you to share your interests with your friends. Reposts will be recommended to your friends’ and followers’ feeds, and they’ll also be in a separate tab on your profile, so you can always go back to revisit your reposts.
Instagram will have its own spin on the quote tweet as well with the ability to add a note in a thought bubble over a reposted photo or video.
Then there’s Instagram’s take on the Snap Map, the classic map view that shows you where your friends and others are posting. Instagram’s version? It’s called the Instagram Map.
Stay up-to-date with friends with the Instagram map. You can opt in to sharing your last active location with friends you choose, and you can turn it off anytime. You can also open the map to see content your friends and favorite creators are posting from interesting or fun locations. No matter how you use the map, you and your friends have a new, lightweight way to connect with each other.
Instagram says that location sharing is an opt-in feature so it’s off by default. The app also includes granular controls for how you share location if you opt to use the location sharing tool. Parents can control location sharing on supervised accounts as well.
Lastly, Instagram is adding a Friends tab to the Reels experience so you can see what people you follow are enjoying.
We’re introducing Friends, a new tab in Reels where you can see public content your friends have interacted with, or recommendations from Blends you’ve started, and easily start conversations about them. Friends will help you see which reels the people you care about most are creating and engaging with.
This feature has been tested in select markets already this year, and as of today, Instagram users globally now have access. Learn more from Meta’s Instagram blog here. Next up, iPad app? Now that’d make for a nice 15-year-anniversary splash.