32 Instagram features marketers need to know in 2024

You know how you can add music to your reels? You can now add tunes to your carousel posts too! Get groovy.

Instagram’s long had location capabilities, but it’s improved its map search features. Users can explore popular tagged locations around them, making it easier to find businesses, mural photo ops, and other noteworthy public places.

You can filter location results by specific categories like restaurants, cafes, or salons.

Can’t find the exact sticker you want? Now you can generate them using AI! When you search through GIPHY stickers, you can simply add in a term, hit “AI stickers,” and have it generated for you. The opportunities are endless.

With Broadcast Channels, you can send followers who have opted into your channel mass updates. It’s like blasting out a message to all of your subscribers.

Besides following accounts, Broadcast Channels are one of the only Instagram subscription features your followers have to opt in to.

The more the merrier, right? With this Instagram collab feature, you can now partner up with three friends on a feed post, carousel, or reel. This means your content will appear in your collaborators’ feeds and vice versa!

You’ll potentially be able to triple the eyes on your content. The engagement for the post will be shared by all of the accounts involved.

The interactive bio features make it easier for your audience to access information directly from your Instagram profile. Information like your business’s address and phone number are clickable, leading curious potential customers straight to the point.

Make serious connections (in real-time) using Instagram Live. This feature helps you engage your audience and can give you a major step up when it comes to brand authenticity. Using Instagram Live, you can:

Collab posts allow two separate accounts to share the same content to both of their feeds. Both of the creator’s handles appear in the post, and the comments and likes are all in one place.

This is a smart feature to use when you’re partnering with an influencer or another business for an advertisement or sponsored content. It makes the partnership transparent and obvious to your audience and increases your visibility.

Comments generally show up chronologically, but sometimes they’ll be listed with the most liked ones at the top. You can pin comments at the top of the pile (directly below the caption) so you can control which comments your audience sees first.

Using Instagram Messenger, you can send GIFs or stickers in any direct message. Plus, you can send interactive polls or quizzes to any group chat (any message with three or more accounts involved).

To access these features, go into the chosen chat and tap the sticker icon on the lower right side of the screen. From there, you’ll be able to pick stickers and GIFs and use the poll and quiz options—if what you’re looking for doesn’t pop up right away, use the search bar.

Think of the Instagram Notes feature like a bulletin board: you can “pin” short phrases to the top of Messenger, and they’ll stay there for 24 hours. Notes are a great place to remind people about events, promotions, life updates and more.

Captions are a classic way to up your Instagram Story game — they allow you to layer text, emojis and tags over the photo, Reel or post you’re sharing.

You can link to a website in your Instagram Story. You’ll find this feature in stickers.

IG Stories disappear after being posted. That is unless they’re saved in a Story Highlight. Story Highlights allow you to keep notable or informative Stories “pinned” and easily accessible at the top of your profile.

Story stickers allow users to interact with your content while staying in the Instagram app. Interactive stickers include pools, links, quizzes and questions. You can use these features to engage with your audience, source opinions, or get ideas.

This is one of Instagram’s newer sticker options, and it has some very cool possibilities when it comes to sharing. The “Add yours” sticker allows anyone on Instagram to participate in a photo-sharing challenge that follows a specific prompt. For example: “You as a teenage dirtbag.”

These sticker prompts can blow up, with hundreds of thousands of people using them as an excuse to share photos.

The Remix feature gives Instagram users the opportunity to make a Reel that includes a photo or video posted by another user. This is a great way to shoot reaction videos, make an engaging comment on another post or support another user of the app. (Also, sing duets!)

Product tags are an awesome tool for retailers using the platform (and an even more awesome tool for online shopaholics). This Instagram shopping feature gives businesses the opportunity to showcase their products online and consumers the opportunity to buy those products directly within the app.

You know how sometimes you like something and think, I won’t forget what that was! Only to try to revisit the post later, completely forgetting what it was? Well, now you can see the posts you’ve liked.

Click the hamburger menu (three lines stacked on top of each other) on your profile. Navigate to Your Activity, click Interactions, and then click Likes.

You have control over who interacts with your content on Instagram. This is crucial, especially for business accounts. The last thing you want is a runaway comments section full of negativity.

To filter comments by keyword:

• Go to Settings and tap Privacy, then Hidden Words.
• Toggle Hidecomments to filter general offensive words.
• Click Manage custom words and phrases for messages, comments, and posts to add custom filters.

To delete comments:

• Tap the speech bubble icon below the comment you want to delete.
• Swipe to the left over the comment text.
• Select the garbage can icon that appears to delete the comment.
• You can also delete your own comments using the same method.

To disable comments entirely:

• You can’t turn off comments for your entire profile, only for individual posts.
• While posting an image, tap Advanced Settings at the bottom.
• Toggle on Turn Off Commenting to disable comments for that post.

You can get rid of all the weird or misspelt searches you’ve made from your search history. Here’s how:

• Go to your profile.
• Tap the hamburger menu (three lines stacked).
• Select Your activity.
• Tap Recent searches.
• Click Clear all.

You know those fancy fonts all the cool kids are using in their bios? Now, you can have what they have. To add special fonts to your bio:

If you run a business account on Instagram, you might suffer from receiving the same messages over and over again. You can streamline responding to frequently asked questions and comments on Instagram Business accounts with saved replies. Here’s how:

• Go to Business in your Settings, then Quick Replies. Alternatively, click the three-dot chat bubble icon at the bottom of your screen and select New Quick Reply.
• Create a shortcut for a longer response you often send.
• For example, use “returnpolicy” as a shortcut for a longer response about your return policy.
• Enter the longer response associated with the shortcut.
• When you want to use the response, either type the shortcut into the comment box or tap the Quick Replies icon to choose from your saved responses.

You can create a favorite’s list to see more of the Instagram friends, fam, and influencers you love. Their posts will be higher up and shown more often on your Feed, and you can access a favorites-only Feed to check in on your people.

This Favorites Feed comes without ads or suggested posts and is totally anonymous. To select your favorites, tap the Instagram logo at the top left corner and add your preferred accounts to the list.

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