Instagram’s added four new interactive stickers, which it’s hoping will encourage more engagement and interaction in-stream. Which is important, because over time, more and more sharing activity is switching to private DMs, which is why Instagram’s looking to provide more options, and lean into content trends, in order to maintain in-stream interactivity.
The first new sticker is “Add Yours Music”, which will enable users to respond to a Story with a track.
As you can see in this sequence, with “Add Yours Music”, users will be able to reply to a story with a song, providing another engagement option.
It’s essentially Instagram’s “Add Yours Sticker” option, but for music instead. And with music now playing a key role in social app engagement, especially among younger users, it provides another way for IG to lean into that trend.
Instagram’s also adding a new, Polaroid like “Frames” option, which will turn your photos into an old-school style photo.
The most interesting element here is that viewers will need to shake their phone to make the image appear. Instagram first previewed the option for its Coachella tie-in last month.
Next up is its “Reveal” sticker, which will only be made visible when the viewer sends the creator a DM.
As per Instagram:
“Once you select the Reveal sticker, you will be prompted to type a hint for friends about what they might find behind your blurred story. You can tap the ‘Preview’ icon in the bottom left hand corner to see how your story will appear to your friends.”
Viewers will then need to send you a DM to see the image, though the creator won’t have to approve every DM individually, the image will automatically become visible once a DM has been sent.
So in one way, it’ll provide another interactive option, but theoretically, the viewer could also just respond with anything in a DM to see your image.
I guess it does add an extra level of transparency as to who’s checking out your story, while also opening up another line of direct communication.
Finally, Instagram’s also re-upping its “Cutouts” sticker, which has been available for some users since January.
“Cutouts” enables you to create a sticker from any element in a photo, which you can then use in other contexts.
As noted, some IG users have had access to the option for some time, but now, all users will be able to use the Cutout option for their compositions.
These are somewhat interesting options, providing new means of engagement, and it could be worth trying them out in your Stories to spark more interest. They’re not transformative options, in any way, but they add another dimension to Stories engagement, which could help to spark more interest.