Meta has announced some new features for its popular social media platform, Instagram. You can now locate your friends using the Instagram Map and check out the content they post from different locations.
The feature is quite similar to the Snap Map available on the social media app Snapchat, which allows users to share their location and view location-based content. It"s the latest example of how Snapchat-like features land on Meta"s apps time and again, including Stories and Geostickers.
Anyway, you can opt in to share your live location on the Instagram Map, which is disabled by default. Once enabled, your location gets updated every time you open the app or return to the app if it"s been running in the background.
Instagram Map populates location-tagged content such as Reels, posts, and stories from people you follow. It also displays Notes from people you mutually follow. The company said in a press release that you can browse location-based content on the Map regardless of whether you share your location.
You can choose whether to share your location with people who follow you back, Close friends, selected friends, or no one. Parents who manage their teens" accounts will get a notification if their teen starts sharing their location on the map.
You can find the Instagram Map at the top of your DM Inbox. It"s currently rolling out to users living in the US, and a global rollout will happen in the near future.
Another new Instagram feature you might have seen on some other social media app is the ability to repost content. You can report Reels and Posts on your account, which appear in a separate tab on your Instagram profile page.
Meta said that Instagram will recommend your reposts to friends and followers, but they will be credited to the original poster. In other words, if someone recommends your post, it will show up in the feeds of that person"s followers, even if they don"t follow you.
You can share someone else"s content by tapping on the repost icon at the bottom of a reel or post. You can add a comment of your own before hitting the save button. Apart from that, Meta is also rolling out the Friends tab to all users globally. The feature introduced earlier this year lets you see what public content your friends have interacted with.