Storytelling Reinvented: Instagram Introduces Reveal and Music Stickers

• Instagram introduces “Reveal” feature for hidden Stories, “Add Yours Music” sticker, and “Frames” for Polaroid-style archiving.
• Algorithm changes prioritize original content over reposts, addressing creators’ concerns and aiming for better content discovery.

Instagram announced on Friday a series of new features to Stories that provide users with creative new ways of sharing and engaging, specifically the launch of “Reveal”, an innovative new way for you to post hidden Stories for followers to discover via direct messages (DM). Furthermore, other new capabilities allow them to highlight songs they enjoy or highlight memories via Stories.

To use Reveal, tap on the stickers icon when creating your Story and choose “Reveal.” When asked by Snap to type out an hint for your blurred tale, type one out here before posting your post to Snapchat; your friends can only view its content by sending you direct messages (DMs).

Reveal may be useful to both friends and creators alike; creators could especially benefit as this feature allows for increased Story engagement. Instagram notes that each DM won’t need to be approved separately in order for Reveal to work; therefore creators won’t have to deal with having to go through thousands of them themselves!

Instagram will soon introduce a “Add Yours Music” sticker for Stories, which allows users to share songs that suit their mood while encouraging followers to do the same. This builds off its “Add yours” sticker which allows people to respond with stories on certain prompts or topics.

Users will also gain access to a new “Frames” feature which transforms photos into virtual Polaroid pictures that they can view by shaking their phone (if shaking is too much, simply click “Shake to Reveal” button instead). Stories usually focus on sharing updates about what is currently going on; while Frames offers users more of an archive-type of posting.

Once you select an image to showcase, Frames sticker will automatically include its date and timestamp of when the photo was taken as well as give an option to add captions directly onto its virtual Polaroid photo frame.

“Cutouts” allows users to convert any video or photo stored in their camera roll into custom stickers for use in Stories or Reels, similar to Apple’s image cutout tool which lets you “pick up” objects easily with just the tap of their finger.

Instagram announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out new changes to its ranking systems to better highlight content from smaller and original creators. As part of these adjustments, reposts will be replaced with original material when suggesting recommendations; reposted items will receive labels; content aggregators will no longer appear within these recommendations – following months of criticism from creators’ whose reach had been negatively impacted by Instagram’s algorithm.