Instagram’s New Camera Feature Create Mode
The Instagram camera is about to become much more capable, but not really to help you take better pictures or to improve on any of its picture taking capabilities. On April 30, Instagram announced at the annual F8 conference that it would be releasing a new design for its camera application, which it calls Create Mode.
This new feature allows users to exchange information between them without the necessity of beginning with a video or photo. Also, at the conference, Instagram announced new details on fundraising possibilities, a powerful new shopping tool, and a test which would eliminate counts of likes on user feeds. It is thought that the new design for the built-in camera will be released sometime within the next several weeks, although the company has made no formal announcement about a launch date as yet.
The Create Mode identified by Instagram will allow users to make far greater use of stickers and other effects, but it doesn’t require that you begin an exchange with a video or photo. Instead, users can begin sharing from scratch on a canvas which starts out blank, and then all kinds of other effects and stickers can be added in at a later time.
Additional shopping capabilities
In addition to the new camera design, Instagram users will also be able to shop for their favorite fashions by directly using an Instagram photo. This will become possible because of a brand-new tool which allows creators to tag a product from right within a post they’re creating. According to Instagram, this new tool will be available for public testing very soon by a restricted number of influencers chosen by platform executives.
The intent of this new tool is to allow platform users to directly shop for any kind of apparel which is spotted in an Instagram post, and which might appeal to a specific user. This new update will help users find a particular item without having to search for it using any of the details from Direct Messaging, from the included caption, from the user who happened to share the post, or from a screenshot which was taken of the image.
Last month, Instagram Checkout was announced by the platform, which is an update that allows all users to do their shopping without ever having to leave the application itself, with the entire checkout routine being managed from within Instagram itself. Testing will begin in the next several weeks, and will include a selected group of influencers chosen by Instagram at its discretion. These influencers will also be testing the Instagram Checkout feature which was recently incorporated on the platform, so that both the shopping and the checkout processes can be confirmed in one extended testing session.
Fundraising on Instagram
The fundraising tools which have long since been available through Facebook, are now being shared to Instagram, so that the same capabilities will be available to the image-based social media platform. United States users can now have the capability of adding a donation sticker to their Stories, and Instagram has announced that all monies derived from these stickers will go directly to the charitable cause selected by the user who added the sticker.
This new feature makes use of a Donate button associated with either video or images, all within Stories. The fundraising feature works by allowing users to find a non-profit organization, and then incorporating it right into their Story so they can begin fundraising efforts. Anyone who then views the Story would have the option of tapping on the included Donate button, so they could make a contribution to the cause. This Donate button is expected to be rolled out later in 2019, and according to Instagram, it’s considered a priority to bring this experience to its network of users.
It is considered to be an option which brings users closer to causes and individuals whom they care about and wish to support, by increasing awareness of such meaningful causes in whatever communities they’re situated. The fundraising option will allow people to raise money in an effort to support non-profit organizations which are important to them, by using a donation sticker which is right within Instagram Stories. The social media platform has vowed to keep all users updated on their progress with the fundraising option and will share information as it becomes available.
Facebook fundraising
Facebook has had its own version of the fundraising option available to users since 2015. Originally, Facebook extracted a 5% processing fee from all donations which were given, but it abandoned that policy in November 2017, so that the non-profit organizations being targeted could then receive the full 100% of all contributions. Facebook does continue to take a 1.5% fee on all donations which are considered to be personal fundraisers, and these vary according to the country they’re conducted in.
Eliminating like counts
Also during the F8 conference, Facebook and Instagram announced that they were confirming the rumors swirling around efforts to eliminate like counts which have previously been available in viewers’ feeds. The like counts themselves will remain intact, but they will not be shown to followers in the future. Instead, the only person who will be able to see how many likes were garnered by a specific video or photo, will be the user who shared the original post.
Popularity of Stories
The fact that Instagram has more than one billion users now, and that at least half of all these users make regular use of Stories, is a huge factor in driving the continually expanding capabilities being developed for Stories. The tremendous popularity of Stories allows a great many users to create and share their own collection of videos and photos in a 24-hour period, and it has encouraged the company to emphasize the development of new elements for it. That’s why in recent months there have been so many additions to the Stories platform, including bulk uploads, music stickers, a new share option, a type mode, and even question stickers.
Heather Hart
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