With over 229 million users in India alone, Instagram remains a key platform for conversations around music, movies, trends, and brand interactions. As the platform continues to grow globally, 2024 has seen Instagram introduce significant updates to enhance user experience and engagement, reinforcing its place in the competitive social media landscape.
This year, Instagram focused on refining its core features, such as carousels, which now allow users to tag collaborators and creators directly. It also expanded music-based interactions across all content formats, further strengthening its multimedia approach. The Stories and Direct Messages (DM) sections received continued updates aimed at improving user safety and streamlining communication.
A major development came with Instagram’s integration of generative AI. The platform introduced AI-powered tools, such as personalised content recommendations and AI-assisted caption suggestions, helping creators and brands produce more dynamic and engaging posts. These updates also benefited marketers, providing them with AI-powered tools for campaign optimisation and audience insights.
Instagram also launched the AI-powered video editing tool, Movie Gen, enabling users to modify video elements using text commands. Additionally, the platform introduced a year-end collage feature for Stories, allowing users to compile their favourite moments from 2024. A new feature to schedule direct messages was also added, enhancing communication planning.
Let us take a look at all the updates and announcements this year.
January 2024
Instagram experimented with a public ‘Collections’ feature, allowing users to showcase posts on their profiles to highlight interests like celebrities or books.
The platform introduced stricter safety measures for teens, removing self-harm content from their feeds, Stories, and Explore. It will redirect users searching for sensitive terms to help services. All teen users are now automatically set to the strictest content settings, limiting exposure to harmful material.
Introduced night-time nudges to encourage teens to turn off their phones after using the app for over 10 minutes late at night. The reminder, which appears in areas like Reels and Direct Messages, aims to promote healthy sleep habits by encouraging users to close the app.
Instagram introduced new default DM restrictions for teen users, limiting messages to only those they follow. Teens could opt out, but those with Family Center connections needed parental approval to change settings. The platform also began experimenting with image restrictions to protect teens from inappropriate content in DMs.
Allowed users to create custom stickers from still image posts. By selecting ‘Create a cutout sticker’ in the three dots menu, users could isolate elements from a post to use in Stories and Reels. The feature was limited to public posts with permission for cutouts, and stickers were lost if the original post was deleted.
The platform started testing new group chat conversation starters in Notes to boost engagement.
Started testing its new ‘Flipside’ alternative profile option, offering users a private space to share posts with selected connections. It aims to provide a more personalised sharing experience as part of Instagram’s shift towards smaller, more intimate engagement communities.
Rolled out an option to turn off read receipts for DMs, letting users control when ‘Read’ and ‘Seen’ indicators appear. This update offers more privacy and helps manage expectations in personal and brand interactions.
Instagram launched a live test of its ‘Flipside’ alternative profile space, offering users a more private engagement option
