It would seem that Instagram is going to replace their activity tab with a new ‘Shop’ tab in future updates. At the moment they are testing the feature which will be available to only select users. This indicates that the ‘heart’ icon on Instagram’s navigation menu is going to be replaced with a new Shopping Bag Icon.
Once a user taps on the shopping bag icon, it will take the users to the new shopping section. This shop was introduced previously in May by Instagram, which was only available to users in the United States. But with this upcoming update, the Instagram shop will be available to all the users globally.
The Instagram shop allows its users to shop for products without leaving the app itself. The shop was previously accessed via the explore section in the app. For users who aren’t a part of this testing at the moment, will have to access the shop from the same location until this update is released globally.
New Shop
The new version of the Instagram shop being tested is also different from the one Instagram user can access at the moment. In the new version, users will only be able to see products from brands that they are following on Instagram. It will act as a personal feed of products from interesting brands.
The current shop, however, offers more options and is designed to show products from a wide variety of retailers. Users can filter through the products based on multiple categories, like travel, accessories, clothing, and much more.
What About the Activity Tab?
There is no word about the final release as of now, but users who have taken part in this test will be able to access their activity tab from the top right corner of the Instagram app. This is right next to the direct message icons.
Pinned Comments
Instagram has also been testing a new feature that allows users to pin comments on top of their feed posts. This test began in May and now has been released with a new update today.
This feature is focused on an effort to fight bullying on the platform, which allows users to highlight positive comments for other users on top of their posts. Users will be able to pin three comments on their posts. We have seen this feature on YouTube as well, and it is expected to increase engagement just like it did on YouTube as well.
Apart from highlighting positive comments on top to change the tone of a user’s post, Instagram has also been testing the ability to remove negative comments in bulk from a post. This can be a great feature for users who have a large following.
This feature can be enabled on both IOS and Android. For IOS users, choose a comment by tapping on it, then click on the 3-dots icon on the top right. Click on ‘Manage Comments’. You can choose only up to 25 comments at once. Then click ‘More Options’, it will offer you an option to manage comments.
For Android users, just press and hold comments on your post and click on the three-dot icon and choose block or restrict.
Tags
Instagram has also released a new feature that allows users to choose who can tag or mention them in a post or comment. You have three options to choose from:
- Everyone
- Only people you follow
- No one
You can also choose to manually approve each post or comment you are tagged in.
