7 Instagram Updates Every Marketer Should Know)

3 min readJul 23, 2018

Remember when Instagram let us schedule posts in advance this year? What a life saver for social media marketers.

This summer has seen a slew of Instagram updates and features in the service better storytelling and user experience.

Here, 7 updates in the midst of rolling out to Instagram’s 800 million+ users that you can use to upgrade your social media strategy.

1. Instagram Will Notify Users: You’re All Caught Up with Posts

Ever been scrolling through your Instagram feed and haven’t been sure what you’ve already seen and what’s new?

As of July 2, users receive a message saying “You’re all caught up” whenever they’ve seen all posts from the last two days.

2. Instagram Is Testing a “Do Not Disturb” Feature

Instagram (and Facebook, for that matter) are testing a “Do Not Disturb” feature that will halt notifications for 30 minutes, 1 hour, two hours or 8 hours.

In February, Google, Mozilla and Facebook teamed up to launch a “time well spent” movement that helps people use social media responsibly, and the ability to set your mobile device to do not disturb is part of this initiative.

3. Instagram Is Adding Usage Stats

Another outcome of the time well spent initiative is forthcoming usage stats that will tell users how and when they’re using Instagram.

“We’re building tools that will help the IG community know more about the time they spend on Instagram — any time should be positive and intentional,” tweeted Kevin Systrom, the CEO of Instagram.

4. Ask Open-Ended Questions in Instagram Stories

Also rolling out this summer is the ability to ask open-ended questions on your Instagram Stories. It’s still in beta.

Previously, the only options were yes-or-no polls, multiple choice questions and emoji-based slider answers.

5. Shop for Products Directly On Instagram

Of all this summer’s Instagram updates, this one is the most useful for anyone selling products.

The ability to click to shop from any Instagram post is a unicorn-level update.

With an approved business account, you can now tag products on each and every post.

6. Add Music to Instagram Stories

Earlier this summer, Instagram introduced the ability to add music to stories.

With 400 million Instagram Story users and counting, music seemed like a natural next step to help people better tell their stories.

When you open Stories, you’ll see a tab that says “Music.” Click into it and you’ll be able to add a soundtrack. Conveniently, you can search by artist, mood or genre.

7. Instagram Lite for Users with Low-End Devices

In June, Instagram released Instagram Lite. As the name suggests, it’s a lightweight version of Instagram that takes up a mere 573 KB of data (Instagram takes up 33 MB of data).

Instagram Lite is ideal for users with low storage space or poor Internet connections.