Instagram began as a photo-sharing platform, but has recently emphasised Stories and Reels. It can even mess with your muscle memory, causing you to open the Reels section by accident and spend hours there. Instagram, on the other hand, appears to be showing some love to the good old photo sharing side of things with a new option to reply with GIFs in comments.
When you reply to someone’s Instagram Story, you’ve probably noticed the GIF button in the text box. When you tap it, you’ll be presented with a few suggestions as well as a search bar to help you find the perfect GIF to send to your friends.
Something similar is on the way for the comment section as well (via PiunikaWeb). A few users recently discovered a GIF button in the comment box under posts, similar to the one found in Stories. Instagram uses Giphy’s massive collection of GIFs to help you find the exact clip you’re looking for.
Only a few Instagram users on iOS have this new GIF option in comments. We don’t have it on our own iOS devices despite updating to the latest app version, so it appears to be a limited rollout so far. It is unclear how long it will take to reach some of the best Android phones.
Meanwhile, Instagram recently introduced Quiet Mode, which allows you to disconnect from social media. When you enable this option, the app will pause notifications and notify anyone who DMs you that you are unavailable. The app now allows you to mark certain types of content as uninteresting so that you see fewer of them in the Explore and Reels tabs.
Despite some challenges, Instagram remains a popular platform for digital creators. If you’re new to the platform, we have some pointers to help you improve your Stories game and post like an influencer.
