DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Instagram testing slow motion video, Story reactions and a mute button

Apr 30, 2018 by John Aldred 1 Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

According to The Verge, it seems that Instagram are testing out a bunch of new features. Amongst them, there’s slow-motion video for Stories, Story reactions, and a mute button. It seems that we may also soon be able to tag Facebook friends on Instagram posts.

The new features being tested look to have been discovered by Twitter user, Jane Manchun Wong. Wong has posted a number of screenshots showing some of these new features in action.

Story Reactions

Instagram is testing Story "Reactions". It works kinda like the existing Facebook Stories Reaction pic.twitter.com/z2tAg8BcP2

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 27, 2018

It looks as if, like current comments on Stories, the reactions will be sent through the private message system, and not publicly visible on the Story post itself.

Mute Button

NEW: Instagram is finally working on a mute button for profiles!

h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/TLB4ON3AQ6

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 27, 2018

Several of the images, although created by Wong, were shared by social media consultant, Matt Navarra. One of those features is a new mute button. This would allow you to hide posts from certain streams without completely unfollowing them. This one is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great that we can turn off real life friends who post nothing but crap without having to deal with the awkward “why did you unfollow me?” conversation.

But on the other, it means that the already low engagement numbers will get even lower, if people decide to turn off your feed without unfollowing. Of course, were they likely to engage with your content anyway? Perhaps if they turn off your feed, it will be shown to others who are more likely to engage. Even if it doesn’t show it to other people as a direct result of being hidden on their feed, it will increase relative engagement, thus potentially prompting it to show more people.

So, we’ll have to see how this one plays out. Personally, think I the option to turn off a feed without upsetting people is very useful.

Instagram Stories Archive Calendar

NEW? Instagram Stories Archive – Calendar view

h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/D8AoD7UWhJ

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 27, 2018

This one’s pretty cool. I’ve started getting more into Story archives recently. I use them for when I make trips away, or I just want to create a collection of related content. But sifting through the archive to figure out where a particular Story post is hiding is a pain. Usually I know the approximate date I shot something, so this should make it much easier to find those posts and highlight them.

Slow Motion Video Stories

NEW Instagram is testing a 'Slow-Mo' feature for Stories

h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/Pmr6RyETbt

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 27, 2018

This one may not be that much of a big deal. I suppose it depends on how you shoot content for your stories. Personally, I never actually use the Instagram app. I tend to shoot images in Camera+ and video in Filmic Pro. Then I’ll just post to my Story from the camera roll.

Although, perhaps features such as this are an attempt to try and prevent the need to use 3rd party apps to create the content you post to Instagram.

Video Calls

NEW screenshots of Instagram's incoming video call feature in action

h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/EqtbnB4V8p

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 27, 2018

This one seems like a natural progression for Instagram. As more users ditch Facebook & Messenger apps from their phone, users still want a way to easily video chat. Sure, there are platforms like Skype and Whatsapp, but this is a good way to have access to a lot more people without having to give out your phone number.

I do wonder what sort of screening there is for this on Instagram, though. I know quite a few Instagrammers with huge followings, and this could get really old, really quickly, if some of their more creepy followers kept trying to call.

Tagging Facebook Friends

NEW: Instagram is testing letting you tag Facebook friends in posts

h/t @wongmjane pic.twitter.com/NaXZWqMzN1

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 28, 2018

Now this one is very interesting. I don’t know if this is an attempt to get people back onto Facebook, or to convince those who are choosing to leave Facebook to move over to another one of their platforms vs a competing one. But, it is an interesting development.

Of course, the cross-platform integration between Facebook and Instagram has slowly been building up for a while now. Particularly the integrated Facebook Page/Instagram chat for business accounts, springs to mind. But this appears to not be limited to pages and actually lets you tag personal profiles.

I’d be curious to see which platform this particular feature helps more. Facebook or Instagram.

There’s no news on exactly when, or even if, these features will be coming to the live Instagram. But it’s nice to see some of what they’re testing.

[via The Verge]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

4K, Slow-motion Chemical Reactions Show Mesmerising Chemistry Magic A Slow Mo Guy talks about the challenges of shooting high speed slow motion video Instagram now lets you mute friends who annoy you Canon comes up with a shutter button like no shutter button before it

Filed Under: news Tagged With: facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, slow mo, slow motion

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« What happens when you pair 140-year-old lens with $15,000 RED cinema camera
This ultra-rare modified Leica M6 is selling on eBay for $10,000 »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • Nikon announces Zf shortage (Surprise!)
  • Finally! Sennheiser EW-DP SKP plug-on transmitter offers 32-bit float recording
  • Photographing an abandoned Italian villa: A time capsule of history and mystery
  • The Tascam DR-10L Pro is an unclippable 32-bit float personal audio recorder
  • This year’s Nature TTL POTY winner puts global warming right in our faces

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy