Instagram Rolls Out New Features for Reels, Here’s What Changes

Creators will be notified when they’re unlocked an achievement after they’ve published their Reel, and can click on ‘view’ in the notification to see more information. They will also be able to keep track of what they’ve earned and look at what achievements they could try to earn by taking a look at the ‘…’ menu on any given Reel.

New Delhi: Meta-owned photo/video sharing platform Instagram has rolled out two new features for its short video creation feature called Instagram Reels. Following are the changes and additions that the platform has brought forth:

1. Schedule posts on Instagram: Now, you can schedule your reel, photo or carousel posts up to 75 days directly from Instagram.

• After creating the desired post (before sharing), you can access scheduling tools by tapping “Advanced Settings”.
• Tap the “Schedule this post” toggle.
• Select date and time when you want the post to go live on your feed.
• Navigate back to Instagram post flow.
• Tap ‘Schedule’.

2. Achievements: Creators will unlock achievements that relate to specific actions when creating a reel such as:

• Collaborating with another creator (via Add Yours sticker, Collabs tool or Remix)
• Engaging with their community by making Reels more interactive (via interactive stickers like polls, quizzes, et cetera.
• Joining the conversation by using trending audio or effects
• Keeping up their creative streak by making more than one Reel in a week.

Creators will be notified when they’re unlocked an achievement after they’ve published their Reel, and can click on ‘view’ in the notification to see more information. They will also be able to keep track of what they’ve earned and look at what achievements they could try to earn by taking a look at the ‘…’ menu on any given Reel.

HOW ARE PEOPLE RESPONDING TO THE NEW INSTA FEATURES?

Several digital content creators spoke to India.com about the new features Instagram brought in and how those features are going to benefit the masses. Some of those comments have been added below.

Mayur Jumani, Digital Content Creator, Music Composer, Singer and Founder of Aux Media says, “I was eagerly waiting for a feature like this. It’s very helpful for creators like me to efficiently plan our posting calendars. I usually create my content in the first few days of the week so I can focus on other things later. But, just for posting, I had to block an hour before the upload date & time. With this tool it becomes even more liberating.”

“As a content creator, even when I have a content bank, it gets extremely difficult and tedious to post content, especially when I am busy or travelling. With this scheduling tool, it will make it easier for us content creators to maintain the consistency and engagement of our profiles. Providing my audience with entertainment constantly is my aim. As a creator that likes to shoot a lot of content in advance and keep, this tool is basically a helping hand in ensuring my hard work doesn’t go to waste,” said Aatman Desai, Digital Content Creator.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for creators. Sometimes creators have their video ready, have the cover picture ready, have the caption ready but forget to post because they’re in a meeting or they’re attending a function so it becomes difficult to post a reel at a given time. Or if you are doing a branded post and it needs to go live, for some reason, you dont have the post ready, you can now schedule posts well in advance so that you don’t miss out on the post on that given day. This just goes on to show that Instagram and Meta are listening to creators and are doing a lot for creators so that there is a lot of transparency and more and more creators come and create content on the platform and more and more users consume this content. This is a great move from Meta and Instagram in general and this just eases so much and takes off so much burden off our shoulders,” said Deepak Pareek, Digital Content Creator and Founder of Iceberg Creations.