Over 25 million businesses are now active on Instagram!
What's the story
Facebook's photo-sharing app, Instagram, announced its platform now home to over 25-million businesses, a remarkable rise from 15-million in July this year. The company said a majority of these active business accounts belong to small businesses. One-third of these small-scale companies built their businesses "on Instagram". Instagram says it's not only a destination for business discovery but also "where business is done". Here's more!
Quote
80% Instagrammers follow at least one business
Instagram has 800-million monthly users; most of them are connecting with businesses they love. Instagram stated: "Over 80% of accounts follow a business; 200-million Instagrammers actively visit the profile of a business every day. Instagram community is helping spur small business growth in big ways."
Features
Instagram is testing new Retweet-like Regram, GIF Search features
Meanwhile, reports claim Instagram is soon bringing some exciting new features for its users as the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service was spotted testing a range of new features for its app. Such updates include a "Regram" button to let users repost photos/stories easily, GIF Search for Stories, and "Share to WhatsApp" option. The upcoming features could be rolled out for testing to limited users.
Regram
Instagram finally bringing the much-awaited Regram feature
"Regram" button is something Instagram users have been long waiting for. It would allow them to repost Stories (their own or others' posts) without downloading and posting them separately. The button, which looks very similar to Twitter's Retweet button, would be present below each post. Users currently use third-party apps like Regram and Repost to share and repost Instagram photos and videos directly.
Information
In-app option to search, add GIFs
Another expected update on Instagram app is the "GIF Search" option. Lately, several platforms, including WhatsApp, brought this feature to their own apps. GIF Search would allow users to search for GIFs and add them to posts and Stories via the popular Giphy website.
Emojis
Shortcuts for emojis within the text box
Users could soon see emoji shortcuts on Instagram app where after typing some word like "congratulations", an emoji representing this word would appear on screen. Also, the app is expected to show the lists of trending emojis and hashtags as "Top Emojis" and "Top Hashtags". Users can also follow the hashtags, to see the related top posts and recent stories.
Share your stories directly on WhatsApp
It looks like Facebook wants to bring all of its services and platforms together. That's why Instagram is testing "Share to WhatsApp" feature to upload content directly to WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook. This feature would enable users to share Stories with other WhatsApp friends. Reports suggest many users have had a similar option to share on Facebook for some time.
Other
Archive stories, pin threads, and hang out with "Closest Friends"
But that's not all Instagram is bringing; it is expected to roll out a personal archiving feature, allowing users to save or archive their posts/Stories in a personal folder. Another interesting feature is an option for pinning a thread in direct messages. Instagram may introduce "Closest Friends" feature for creating a group with friends to share content only with them easily.