Instagram today announced that it is rolling out several new features including Video Chat, topic channels in Explore, and new camera effects for Stories.
Video Chat in Instagram Direct: With this new Video Chat feature, you can video chat either with just one person or a group video in Instagram Direct. Here’s how it works:
- To start a video chat, swipe into your Direct inbox and open any message thread.
- Tap the new camera icon in the right corner, and the video chat will ring your friends’ phones so they don’t miss it.
- While on the video chat, you can minimize the video and multitask on Instagram, sending messages and photos in Direct, browsing your feed, posting a story and more.
Topic Channels on Explore: Topic channels on Explore allows you to discover your interests on Instagram. Here’s how it works:
- When you open the page, you’ll see a tray at the top with personalized channels. This includes a ‘For You’ channel, which has a mix of posts tailored to your interests.
- You’ll also see channels on topics you might like such as Art, Sports, Beauty or Fashion – as well as a list of hashtags, giving you more ways to explore your interests.
- You can browse through a variety of interests by swiping from grid to grid, or you can go deep into a specific interest by tapping on a channel and scrolling up. If you’d like to remove a topic channel, press and hold the channel and select ‘Mute’ from the menu.
New Camera Effects: Instagram is today introducing the first batch of new camera effects designed by Ariana Grande, Buzzfeed, Liza Koshy, Baby Ariel and NBA in the Instagram camera.
- You’ll see a new effect in your Instagram camera if you follow any of these accounts — just tap the face icon at the bottom right corner. If you aren’t a follower but you see an effect that you love, you can tap to try it on and add it to your camera.
Source: Instagram