Instagram's Busy Week: 5 Updates Creators & Brands Need to Know

Instagram had a busy week. With official product launches, new tests, and expanded experiments, it’s been a lot to keep up with. If you felt the same, you'll appreciate this edition of the newsletter.

I dive into Instagram's standout updates—how they work, why they matter, and how creators and brands can maximize them.

Keep in mind that Instagram often tests features with different users, accounts, and regions, so some updates may not be available to you just yet. Let’s dive in.

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1. Text-Based Creative Tools

What It Is: Instagram introduced several new text-based creative tools. For Reels and Stories, users can now access expanded fonts, effects, animations, and a simplified text tool. For Photos and Carousels, users can now add text and layer images using stickers.

Why It Matters: These updates empower creators to express themselves more creatively and enhance their storytelling. By integrating unique features directly within the app, Instagram reduces creators' reliance on third-party tools like Canva and CapCut. This is particularly noteworthy as some creators have recently voiced frustration with these tools—Canva is raising its pricing, and CapCut has moved previously free features like auto-captions behind a paywall.

Every Format Matters: Upgrading several content formats demonstrates Instagram's commitment to supporting a diverse creator base. While Reels remain a major focus, the platform has steadily improved its photo-based formats, appealing to users who miss the app’s earlier days. As TikTok expands into photo content, Instagram is likely to continue enhancing its photo features to stay competitive and serve its core user base

2. Comments on Stories

What It Is: Select users can now leave comments on Stories, which are visible to other viewers. Users also have the option to turn off comments or delete them from Stories.

Why It Matters: The ability to comment on Stories adds a new dimension to engagement options, complementing existing engagement features like responses, reactions, and likes.

This provides an additional engagement signal and a means to collect feedback at scale. It also introduces a new layer of measurement for influencer marketing. As Stories are a key component of many influencer campaigns on Instagram, comments offer marketers another metric to evaluate the performance of sponsored Stories.

Comments on Stories Could Play a Bigger Role: Recent sightings of code for a dedicated Story Highlights tab on profiles, coupled with Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s interest in consolidating more of users' profiles, suggest that users might soon have a dedicated experience for Story Highlights, similar to Reels. If this happens, Story comments could play a more prominent role.

3. Trial Reels

What It Is: Trial Reels, which initially appeared at the beginning of the year, has rolled out to more users. This feature allows users to share Reels with non-followers for a limited time. During publishing, users can select the "Trial" option to initially share the Reel with non-followers and gauge its performance. Based on this feedback, they can then choose to share it more widely with everyone, including their followers, either manually or automatically if it performs well.

Why It Matters: Trial Reels offer creators a low-pressure way to experiment with content by initially sharing it with non-followers. This approach allows for unofficial A/B testing of new video ideas and variations, providing insights into performance before sharing with a broader audience.

Addressing Reach Concerns: Additionally, Trial Reels can address creators' concerns about reach by allowing them to avoid sharing poorly performing videos with their community. Instead of deleting and reposting, creators can choose not to share a video if it isn’t resonating initially.

4. Collaborative Carousels

What It Is: Collaborative Carousels, which Instagram announced last fall, has expanded to more users. By toggling on the “Allow others to add to this post” option, users can invite others to submit photos and videos to include in their posts.

If submissions are approved, contributors' usernames will be displayed alongside their content. Additionally, the post will be shared with each contributor's followers, although it will not appear on their profiles.

Why It Matters: This feature allows users to co-create and curate content with their communities. For example, a travel creator can share photos from a recent trip and invite followers to contribute their own content from similar travels. Brands can leverage this for giveaways and contests, rewarding consumers who submit photos or videos featuring their products while gathering user-generated content.

Additionally, brands can use Collaborative Carousels to showcase creator content. For instance, they can involve creator partners in posts over time, such as in a campaign where creators highlight different products from a new collection. The feature is also useful for live experiences or brand trips, enabling the brand and creators to share the experience as it unfolds.

Increased Reach Through Collaboration & Curation By displaying these posts in the feeds of contributors' followers, Collaborative Carousels also expand reach. This adds to a short list of features, including Collabs and Notes on Feed Posts and Reels, that provide users with more visibility through collaboration and community curation.

5. Post-Publish Reels Cover Editing

What It Is: There’s now the ability to edit and update the cover for a Reel after it has been published. When editing an existing Reel, users can choose to select a frame from the video or a photo from their camera roll as the cover.

Why It Matters: More editing capabilities help address concerns related to the new vertical profile grids currently being tested. For those who have curated their profiles around the square format, this feature allows them to adjust Reel covers to fit the vertical format, preserving their aesthetic.

More Flexibility Post-Publishing: Instagram has added several updates that increase post-publishing flexibility over the months. Notable examples include the ability to invite collaborators to an existing Reel and replace licensed music to boost Reels as ads. This adds to that flexibility, offering more efficiency—always a plus for creators and brands.

Go Deeper

If you’re a new subscriber or may have missed some editions, I’ve previously done deep dives into some of Instagram’s most significant changes this year. These include prioritizing smaller, original content creators, placing more weight on content shared via direct messages, and making Views the primary metric across formats.

Catch up on these by reading the editions below:

• Instagram to Reward Smaller, Original Content Creators

• Unpacking Instagram’s Focus on Sends Per Reach

• Views Are the Gold Standard for Instagram Now

THANK YOU

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