Instagram: What’s New?

- A new banner for the live shows

Continues, unstoppable the series of updates for Instagram which, after bringing some updates to subscriptions is now aiming at constantly and incrementally innovating live streams.

Following the launch of the ability to mute and turn off videos and create live streams along with four other profiles, Instagram just introduced banners that will allow - especially creators - to get more exposure and reach more users with scheduled live streams.

What is it all about?

Instagram live broadcasts, which have become increasingly popular with lockdowns, are a fundamental feature for the social network, and for creators, who - with these - can interact more and more directly with their follower base.

To give further visibility to this feature, the IG teams have come up with a badge that will allow followers to be updated on the next scheduled live streams of the profile in question.

And it will also be possible to set a "reminder" for the live stream event.

Furthermore, users will be able, as followers of specific accounts, to view all the live streams in a special section of the interested profile.

Also, to increase the scale of visibility for this type of content, the badge can be used not only by the followers of the specific account but by anyone who views the profile.

- Goodbye, IGTV

You might have read it in some press releases, but it is now official: Instagram TV is no longer there!

Instagram made a direct announcement about this.

This maneuver has lasted for months and culminated with the complete elimination of the separate IGTV app.

In truth, the brand had already been withdrawn in October, so it was only a matter of time before we could witness the burial of the related app.

What could scare creators (but not too much), would be the elimination of another tool connected to some longer video content: Ad formats for in-stream videos (originally known as IGTV Ad).

This move goes against the objective of the company to focus on videos, officially communicated on many occasions by Adam Mosseri; all the efforts of Instagram are now pointing towards the Reel, which since last week have also been included in Facebook.

The solution proposed by Instagram to replace the Ad format for in-stream videos is that (still to be launched) of the Ad Stickers for the Reel format.

An alternative that seems to be in contrast with the problems that all other platforms have been experiencing since the launch of the Ads function within extremely short video content.

Therefore, TikTok, for example, continues to extend the duration of its videos and YouTube recommends using the Shorts as an additional tool for distributing "core" content.

In fact, this choice seems to be also in contrast with the original concept of Instagram as a single entity. However, we understand the move better when we then remember that Instagram is the daughter of Meta.