Instagram News and Trends 2022

The number of hashtags used for posts has been one of the most hotly debated topics since the beginning of Instagram. 🤷‍♀️ Some are strong supporters of the 30 hashtag maximum, while some believe there should be fewer hashtags. Many content creators have already tried to test these theories, but always end up with different results. Recently, the official @creators account published a post with "best practices" for hashtags on Instagram. ✅ Among other tips, they suggest using 3-5 hashtags per post. It is most likely Instagram's attempt to motivate users to only use relevant hashtags.

How many hashtags do you use?

So far, the possibility to add links to Instagram has been very limited. Users could only include one link in their bio and adding links to stories was only available to accounts with over 10,000 followers. 😏 But Instagram made a big change and instead of a "swipe up" link, they added a link sticker. Users simply click the sticker and are taken to the linked page. The bonus is that the sticker can be used by all accounts, regardless of the number of followers. 😍

It has been clear for some time that one of Instagram's main goals is to sell. 🛍 The Shop page, along with Reels which we will get to in a bit, has gained a place of honor in the bottom menu bar in place of other features. Creators can link products in posts and stories allowing users to shop their favorite products and add to their cart 🛒 or complete the entire purchase directly on Instagram. 💵 But that's not all. In the future, Instagram plans to add options such as searching for products using images or shopping in live video.

Instagram continues to push Reels, i.e. short videos. 🎥 Instagram is constantly trying to improve the Reels creation interface in order to keep up with TikTok, the king of short videos. Users can make use of countless filters, edit videos, and add transitions. Audio editing is also improving 🔊 - users have various filters for voice editing and a text-to-speech function has recently been added. Instagram also copied the “reply to comment with Reels” feature that TikTok added in June 2020.

Vertical content prevails, which is why Instagram has changed the way Reels appear in your feed. They now appear in full size and are not cropped as they were before. We can only guess that horizontal content on Instagram will soon be old news.

Have you ever tried logging in to Instagram from your computer? Until recently, the options for using Instagram on your desktop were very limited. Fortunately, that has changed. Now, in addition to viewing content and writing messages, it's possible to add posts as well. 🥳

• Chronological feed - Do you find that you never see all the posts from the accounts you follow? You aren’t wrong - that's how Instagram works. Its algorithm selects posts that it thinks will interest you and doesn’t even show others. But this will soon change. Instagram is considering an option to choose a feed that displays posts chronologically.
• 60-second stories - The maximum length of a story is currently 15 seconds, but Instagram is already experimenting with extending this limit to 60 seconds.
• Adding a host to a live broadcast - Chats in live videos sometimes get very messy, and many creators have trouble both broadcasting and answering chat questions. Instagram is testing the option of adding another user as a moderator, who will be able to answer questions and manage the entire chat.
• Take a break - we all know that social media is not always the most positive environment, but their algorithm lures us into spending hours on their platforms. Instagram is currently testing the “Take a Break” feature on iOS, which will motivate you to take a break from Instagram after a certain period of time.

Which of these new Instagram features will you try first?

If you still need advice and inspiration, take a look at this article. There are still many useful tips for 2022. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram.