Instagram has added a couple of new features to its interface, the first circling around what content is viewed on one's homepage, and the second allowing users to send silent messages into Direct groups.
First of all, however, there's been a new update that's both small and still quite large. Very recently, Facebook took to a Connect conference and announced that the company name would be changing from Facebook to Meta, with the social media platform still maintaining its name. Now, Meta has a lot of other plans for its "meta-verse", but those are unrelated to our article. What is related, however, is that in the latest available update both Instagram and WhatsApp's intro screen footers now reflect this big change by saying platform name "by Meta" instead of " - by Facebook", as previous iterations did. Either way, the change has been made and nothing will be the same.
Now for the features themselves. Both were revealed via screenshots from serial social media leaker Alessandro Paluzzi, who reveals in a screenshot that users homepage can now be customized to show specific types of content. Specifically, a user can choose to cycle between their normal home landing page, content having been posted exclusively by people who the user follows, or content posted by said user's favorite accounts on the platform. It's a fun addition to the interface, especially since the home page can get very boring every now and then. This way, at least users can skip around and directly get to the relevant stuff in their life.
The second feature being incorporated into the Instagram interface is the ability to send silent messages. Sometimes, a message warrants being sent but isn't really important enough to be called attention to. No one wants to be a bother. Entire silent messages. Now, users can send in messages to groups made on Instagram's Direct Messages interface, and the sent messages will not notify any other users. Of course they can still be read by everyone else, but no one needs to immediately attend to it either since no notification went off. What a relief, right?
Read next: Instagram Is Adding Suggested Replies To It's Interface, Providing Creators And Businesses Some Convenience
First of all, however, there's been a new update that's both small and still quite large. Very recently, Facebook took to a Connect conference and announced that the company name would be changing from Facebook to Meta, with the social media platform still maintaining its name. Now, Meta has a lot of other plans for its "meta-verse", but those are unrelated to our article. What is related, however, is that in the latest available update both Instagram and WhatsApp's intro screen footers now reflect this big change by saying platform name "by Meta" instead of " - by Facebook", as previous iterations did. Either way, the change has been made and nothing will be the same.
Now for the features themselves. Both were revealed via screenshots from serial social media leaker Alessandro Paluzzi, who reveals in a screenshot that users homepage can now be customized to show specific types of content. Specifically, a user can choose to cycle between their normal home landing page, content having been posted exclusively by people who the user follows, or content posted by said user's favorite accounts on the platform. It's a fun addition to the interface, especially since the home page can get very boring every now and then. This way, at least users can skip around and directly get to the relevant stuff in their life.
#Instagram is working to allow you to choose what to see in the timeline by choosing between: home, following and favorites 👀 pic.twitter.com/Vjl3cKXnN9
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) October 29, 2021
The second feature being incorporated into the Instagram interface is the ability to send silent messages. Sometimes, a message warrants being sent but isn't really important enough to be called attention to. No one wants to be a bother. Entire silent messages. Now, users can send in messages to groups made on Instagram's Direct Messages interface, and the sent messages will not notify any other users. Of course they can still be read by everyone else, but no one needs to immediately attend to it either since no notification went off. What a relief, right?
Read next: Instagram Is Adding Suggested Replies To It's Interface, Providing Creators And Businesses Some Convenience