Instagram finally introduces threaded replies

Instagram has answered our prayers. It's finally introducing threaded replies into its app. Now you'll be able to see comment threads within the app. If you have friends and followers who like to interact with you a lot, it gets confusing to follow conversations before because even when you hit Reply to a comment it just tags the user you're talking to but the comments just appear chronologically. Version 24 of Instagram will group replies underneath each thread and when there are multiple replies already, you'll just see how many have replied first before you see the full conversation. Facebook has adopted this approach before so it's about time it made its way to Instagram. The feature is rolling out globally in the coming weeks to both Android and iOS users.

Source: Android Authority 

Apple launches official Instagram account to promote #ShotoniPhone photos

Apple just launched its own @apple account on Instagram. This specific Apple account focuses on iPhone photographers’ photos. It seems like a logical thing to do, especially with Instagram being a hub for smartphone photographers to share their work. For now you can see albums that are actually video slideshows of the photographers’ work and a sound clip of him or her talking about their work. Apple is even asking other Instagram users to share their own stuff through the #ShotoniPhone hashtag. So, if you’ve been meaning to share your great iPhone-based work or just want to look at gorgeous shots, this Apple account might be worth the follow.

Source: The Verge

Instagram is testing out a favorite friends list

Instagram as we know it now is pretty black and white when it comes to sharing. You either share to the public or you keep it private. People have tried to work around that with the creation of Finstagrams or “fake Instagrams” or private accounts only followed by a handful of their closest friends. But this approach, when more and more people are added to it have its users become less attracted to using Instagram. The social network is hoping to simplify the process of sharing with a select few with its new “Favorites” list. These people are your closest friends whom you’d want to share certain photos, too. Instagram is testing it out with a few users but it’s expected to come to more, if not all, users later on.

Basically, when you make a post and you have this feature, you’ll get an option on whether to share the photo or story with your favorites. These people on your list will have a green “favorites” badge (which is a star) attached to them. You’ll also get a new favorites tab, which is also denoted by a star that shows all the non-ephemeral posts you’ve shared to your favorites. It’ll be like a second timeline. Favorites lists are private and you can add or delete as many friends as you like. No one will know if they’ve been added to or removed from your list but they would see a green badge at the top of your post to signify that they’re on your favorites list. If you remove them, they’ll lose all access to private posts and your favorites tab will appear empty to them.

Source: The Verge

Instagram isn’t done taking Snapchat's features, introduces ‘face filters’

Instagram adds one more missing piece to its Story feature: Snapchat lenses. Those augmented reality-based filters that lets you add things like bunny ears or a dog’s snout on you. Of course, Instagram can’t call these lenses so they opt to call them “face filters.” You can access the feature at the bottom right of the Story window. It looks like a face icon with sparkles on them. And just like Snapchat lenses, you can go through the different filters to play around with.

As Mashable’s Raymond Wong points out, this blatant copying of Snapchat might not look good but it has been paying off for Facebook. Last month, Instagram garnered 200 million daily active users using Stories, which is already more than the entire daily active user base of Snapchat.