Instagram introduced a new update to its Notes feature, originally launched in December of the previous year. Previously, users could only leave text and emoji status messages for their close friends.
However, with the latest update, Notes now supports music clips and translations. Users can now share a 30-second clip of a song to express their moods and feelings, accompanied by a caption.
The music clips will be available in all markets where Instagram has obtained music licensing rights. Additionally, the Notes Translations feature allows users to easily translate notes in different languages by clicking on the “See translation” option.
This feature aligns with Instagram’s existing translation support in other parts of the app. Instagram found that users enjoyed starting casual conversations with friends, which led to the development of Notes.
Similar to Twitter’s “What’s happening?” prompt, users can write a Note of up to 60 characters, visible at the top of their friends’ inboxes for 24 hours. According to Meta, the parent company of Instagram, over 100 million teen accounts have posted a note in the past three months, indicating the popularity of the feature among teenagers.
In addition to Notes, Meta has been working on Project P92, a decentralized Twitter alternative, as well as an upcoming Instagram app that resembles Twitter, featuring text posts with replies and threads.
