According to leaked photos on a prototype of the new features, Instagram is working on adding Twitter’s “Super Follow” type option to receive exclusive photos.
A new Twitter-style super follow on Instagram?
Normally, when you follow someone on Instagram, you have access to all their photos and videos. But Instagram is testing a new Twitter-style super follow that will require payment, as Alessandro Paluzzi revealed in June 2021.
Instagram has confirmed that screenshots of the feature recently released on social media are from an internal prototype that is in development, but not yet publicly tested.
This will give you access to additional photos or videos, paid content known as “exclusive stories”. Similar to Close Friends but in purple instead of red (or green for Close Friends), this feature will likely only be available to creators.
Instagram has confirmed that it is working on the feature, though the company hasn’t shared specific details about its project. When a user interacts with a story that is only available to subscribers, Instagram will display a message that says, “Only members of this user can view this story.” And when the creator shares his first exclusive story, Instagram will display a message encouraging the user to save it in a highlight for their fans:
“Good on your first special story! Record it as a highlight so fans always have something to see when they join in.
Exclusive Stories are only one part of Instagram’s growth plans for the creator monetization tool. The company revealed other plans, such as new forms of subscription, as well as other new features, such as NFTs, a kind of digital collectible that ranges from memes to artwork.
“For NFT artists, Instagram is often the platform of choice for showcasing their work,” Mosseri said. “I love the idea of doing more in this space.”
It makes sense that Instagram is considering and even implementing a feature like this at some point. CEO Adam Mosseri is set to seek membership of the platform. For the past year, the focus has been on allowing creators to monetize their work across a variety of platforms.
Desktop functionality on Instagram?
In addition to exclusive stories, Instagram is also testing a feature from June 2021 that allows users to create posts using a web browser on a desktop computer. The feature was first spotted by Media Consultant Matt Navarra, who captured screenshots showing off the new desktop feature.
Facebook spokeswoman Christine Pai said:
“We know that many people access Instagram from their computers. To improve this experience, we are now testing the possibility of creating an Instagram post with their desktop browser.”
, I suspect Instagram’s decision to add desktop posts is part of a much larger plan for the platform’s future.” Navara said, as Instagram designs more tools to attract content creators from competitors like TikTok and YouTube.
While Instagram hasn’t made a public announcement on these specific product developments so far, Mosseri has generally spoken about the kind of creative tools Instagram wants to build.
“If we’re going to be the best platform for creators in the long run, we’re going to have to build a whole suite of things or tools that creators can use to help them do what they’re doing,” Did he announce?
Instagram is known for being quite slow in rolling out its features, but now it looks like the platform is moving forward.