Instead of merely sharing to your Instagram DMs and Stories, share public posts to your feed.
Instagram is developing a new feature that imitates other social networks, if you can believe it. According to TechCrunch, Instagram has approved tests of “reposts,” which allow you to display someone else’s content on your timeline. It resembles retweets on Twitter or the popular reshares on Facebook and Tumblr that are also being tested on TikTok.
According to TechCrunch, social media strategist Matt Navarra noticed the “repost” capability on Wednesday after posting photographs in a Twitter thread. Alessandro Paluzzi did, however, spot it in development back in May, indicating Instagram had been working on it for some time.
Instagram users are not entirely new to sharing someone else’s post for the benefit of their own followers. Users can only share public posts to their Instagram Story or through direct messaging for their followers. Users could now share a post directly on their feeds through the test without needing to screenshot, repost, or utilise another source.
On my iPhone, I’ve noticed that Instagram has changed its cross-platform sharing options in addition to reposts within your own feed. Now, sharing to Snapchat, Messenger, or WhatsApp is prioritised over direct-to-DM sharing, which is again identical to TikTok’s strategy.
As part of its apparent slow transformation into TikTok, Instagram pushed back a test that would have moved the app toward an AI-powered stream of full-screen images and videos, but the company isn’t giving up on the project. Instagram users can choose and label several posts as “not interested” in a recent attempt to sway the suggestion algorithm in their favour.
According to Seine Kim, a spokesman for Meta, “We’re researching the possibility to reshare posts in Feed — similar to how you can reshare in Stories — so people can share what resonates with them and so original creators are credited for their work.” She stated, “We plan to test this soon with a small number of people,” adding that the feature isn’t yet accessible to the general public for testing.