Instagram is making it a little easier to chat while browsing your feed. The app is adding a new multitasking feature that allows users to quickly respond to incoming messages without switching back and forth between their feed and the inbox.
With the change, new chats will appear at the top of your feed while browsing, and you can respond by tapping on the message. The app is also adding a shortcut to make sharing posts a little quicker. Instead of scrolling through a list of contacts, users can designate four friends that will appear as shortcuts when tapping and holding the share button.
The app is also adding a music sharing feature, so users can swap 30 second previews of songs coa Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music
Ever since Meta began merging Instagram and Messenger, Instagram’s in-app chat has been steadily getting more features — and becoming more like Messenger. Now, those who have opted to link their inboxes, will also see a tray at the top of their DMs indicating which of their friends are currently online, much like the Messenger feature.
Instagram is also adding a Slack-style @Silent shortcut, similar to the update Messenger showed off earlier this week. Adding @silent to messages allows them to be delivered without triggering a notification. (It’s not clear if Instagram plans to adopt more of the “command” shortcuts in the future.) And, finally, group chats are getting a polling feature of their own, so polls will no longer be limited just to Stories.
As is often the case, these updates won’t be available everywhere all at once. The company says the new features “are available in select countries, with plans to expand globally,” but didn’t elaborate on which countries, or how long it would take for the changes to reach everyone.
