Instagram on Wednesday introduced several new direct message upgrades, including music sharing, scheduled messages, pinned messages, translation, and group chat QR codes.
To share music, tap the sticker button near the message box and select “Music” from the second row. You should see a list of curated songs under “For You,” another genre-based list under “Browse,” and your bookmarked tracks in “Saved.” You can also search for any song in Instagram’s library. Tapping a track will send a 30-second preview of the song featuring a spinning vinyl of the album. This feature works for both 1:1 and group chats.
Scheduled messages, meanwhile, were first spotted in December but are now officially available. To schedule a message, type it out and hold down the blue “Send” button. Pick a date and time and tap “Send” to finish scheduling. At launch, the feature only supports text and can be used to schedule messages up to 29 days in advance.
(Credit: Instagram)
You can now pin a message, image, meme, or Reel to the top of a 1:1 or group chat as well. To pin an item, tap and hold it and select “Pin.” To undo your action, hold the pinned item and select “Unpin.” You can pin up to three items per conversation. If you need to pin a contact or group to the top of your inbox, just tap and hold their name and select “Pin.”
Instagram also added a button to translate text messages in DMs. You can tap and hold a message and pick “Translate” to see the translated text appear below the original. According to News, the feature supports 99 languages at launch.
(Credit: Instagram)
The final update introduces a new way to invite people to a group chat. A group’s admin can now turn on “Invite links” to allow group members to invite others to the chat by sharing QR codes. To enable Invite links, a group admin must go to the chat, tap on the name of the chat group, select Invite link, and enable it. After that, all members can tap the group name at the top, choose Invite link, and share it with anyone.
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Up to 250 members can join a group using QR codes in a day. The chat admin can also reset the QR code or turn it off to disable it, Instagram says on a support page.
According to Engadget, all of these features have begun rolling out to iOS and Android users worldwide. Additionally, Instagram is working on bringing these features to the web soon.
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