Instagram Updates for 2025: What Marketers Need to Know

Feeling left behind by Instagram's rapid evolution? Need help understanding how recent updates can benefit your business?

In this article, we'll explore some of Instagram’s newest features and what they mean to marketers.

Why Instagram's Latest Features Matter for Marketers

Instagram continues to be a powerhouse platform for marketers and Instagram creators, with recent statistics highlighting its importance:

• 90% of Instagram accounts follow at least one business account
• 70% of users discover new products on Instagram
• 50% of users visit a website after seeing an Instagram ad

To maintain this relevancy, Instagram continues to evolve with new features designed to increase engagement, improve content creation, and facilitate easier communication between brands and their audiences. 

From enhanced Stories and Reel capabilities to new ways of interacting through Broadcast Channels and AI, these updates offer marketers new opportunities to connect with their audience and grow their presence on the platform.

Let's explore five key areas where the Instagram app has introduced new features and how to use them to boost your marketing efforts.

#1: New Instagram Stories Features

Instagram Stories continue to be a focus for the platform, with new features designed to boost engagement and interaction. Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, noted that users spend more time sharing content privately, either in direct messages or stories.

Recent updates have made Stories even more powerful for engaging your audience.

Comments on Stories

This new feature allows users to leave public comments on stories, similar to feed posts.

These comments appear as tiny bubbles that viewers can see and interact with.

Use the Comments on Stories feature to gather immediate feedback on products, test ideas, or encourage community discussions around your content. This can be particularly useful for marketers looking to engage their audience more publicly and interactively.

Pro Tip: If you're concerned about managing negative comments, remember that you can setup comment filters to automatically hide comments containing specific words or phrases.

Reveal Sticker

This new sticker blurs out your Instagram story content until viewers interact with it in one of two ways. Users can let users tap the sticker to reveal the content, or you can set it up so viewers have to DM you to reveal the content, potentially increasing your direct interactions

Use the Reveal sticker to create anticipation for product launches, exclusive offers, or behind-the-scenes content.

For example, a clothing brand could use the Reveal sticker to tease a new collection. Users tap the sticker to reveal a sneak peek of the new line, then are prompted to DM the brand for early access or more information.

Pro Tip: The Reveal sticker can be particularly powerful when used with ManyChat, a popular chatbot platform. “If you're using ManyChat, you can setup automated flows triggered by specific keywords sent in response to your Reveal sticker,” Peitz explains. “This allows for scalable, personalized follow-up with interested customers.”

New Fonts and Stickers

Instagram has added more creative options for customizing your stories, including new fonts and stickers. 

For example, the “Add Yours” sticker was enhanced to include music, allowing users to share the song they're listening to.

Pro Tip: Use the “Add Yours” music sticker to create community-driven playlists or to align your brand with specific music genres.

#2: Enhanced Feed Post Features

Instagram has introduced several updates to improve feed posts' functionality and engagement potential, making it easier for marketers to create compelling content directly within the app.

Extended Carousel Posts

You can now include up to 20 slides in carousel posts, up from the previous limit of 10. While this change has been in effect since 2024, the extended format is perfect for in-depth storytelling, comprehensive product showcases, or recapping events in detail.

Use extended carousel posts for in-depth storytelling, comprehensive event recaps, or to showcase a broader range of products. This is particularly useful for industries like real estate, where you can show more aspects of a property, or for conference recaps, where you want to share multiple highlights.

For example:

• Create mini-tutorials or how-to guides.
• Showcase before-and-after transformations.
• Share customer testimonials with product images.

In-App Text Overlay

Users can now upload images, graphics, or videos and add text overlays directly on Instagram. 

The app uses the same fonts as Stories and Reels, ensuring a native look.  Users can also add stickers, including custom cutouts of company logos or mascots, to further customize their posts.

While this new feature is more basic than dedicated design tools like Canva, it's perfect for quick, on-the-go content creation. You can make text-based carousel posts or add captions to images without leaving the Instagram app. However, for more complex designs or brand-specific templates, you may still want to use external tools.

This update also includes a scheduling feature, allowing users to plan their post schedule. While the current version is relatively basic, Instagram could add more templates and design options in the future, making it an increasingly powerful tool for content creators and marketers.

Polls and Prompts

These new interactive elements can be added to feed posts. They appear as small visual icons in white font at the bottom corner of the post, potentially showing how many people have participated. 

This visibility can help draw more users to interact with your content, increasing your post's reach and engagement rates.

Use polls and prompts to gather audience opinions, increase interaction, and gain valuable insights from your followers.

Pro Tip: Pin your polls to the top of your profile to engage viewers immediately.

Product Tags

This feature streamlines the purchasing process and enhances the platform's e-commerce capabilities. 

Business accounts can now add product names, prices, and direct purchase options directly to their posts, making it easier for users to shop in the feed. 

This can be especially effective for businesses with physical products or those looking to drive direct sales through Instagram.

Broadcast Channel Tags

Want to encourage more followers to join your Broadcast Channel for exclusive content or updates? Feed posts can now include tags for broadcast channels, helping to drive more users into these community spaces.

#3: New Reels Features

Instagram continues to invest heavily in Reels, introducing new features to enhance creation and editing capabilities. These updates make it easier for marketers to create high-quality, engaging, short-form video content directly within the app.

Multiple Audio Tracks

You can now add up to 20 different audio tracks to a single Reel, including music, sound effects, and voiceovers.

This feature allows for more complex and professional-sounding audio in your Reels. You can use multiple audio tracks to create more dynamic and engaging Reels, incorporating sound effects, voiceovers, and music to enhance your storytelling.

Try these ideas with multiple audio tracks:

• Create a ‘day in the life' Reel with different background music for each part of the day.
• Layer sound effects over product demonstrations.
• Use multiple voiceovers to showcase different customer testimonials in one Reel,

Drafts, Duplication, and Other Enhanced Editing Features

Instagram has added new editing tools, including an undo/redo button, the ability to split clips, and a replace function. You can also now edit your Reels after posting, including changing the cover image and editing frames.

Take advantage of these new editing features to refine your Reels without leaving the app. Use the split function to remove mistakes or adjust timing and the replace function to swap out clips without starting over.

An exciting editing feature is the ability to save Reels as drafts and create duplicates of existing Reels, making it easier to iterate on your content.

Pro Tip: Use the drafts feature to prepare content in advance, and use duplication to test different edits or versions of your Reels without starting from scratch each time and losing engagement on an already published Reel.

Peitz comments, “While these features don't quite match the capabilities of dedicated editing apps like CapCut, they make it much easier to create and edit Reels directly within Instagram.”

Multiple Collaborators

Reels now support up to five collaborators, expanding opportunities for cross-promotion and reaching new audiences, increasing reach and engagement with the audiences of other creators or brands in your niche.

#4: Live Video Features

Instagram has introduced Broadcast Channels as a new way to communicate with your audience and updated its live video capabilities.

Desktop Live Streaming

You can now go live from your desktop computer using Instagram Studio, enabling more professional setups for your live content.

Peitz advises, “Use this feature for high-quality live sessions like Q&As, product launches, or webinars to significantly enhance the viewer experience.”

Live in Broadcast Channels

Available to professional accounts with 10,000 or more followers, broadcast channels allow creators to send one-way messages to subscribers, similar to a private newsletter within Instagram.

Now, Instagram allows you to go live directly in your broadcast channel, providing a more intimate setting for engaging with your most dedicated followers.

Use this feature for intimate Q&A sessions, product reveals, or exclusive live content for your most dedicated followers. This can help create a sense of exclusivity and reward your most loyal audience members.

Pro Tip: Highlight these exclusive live sessions to encourage more followers to join your broadcast channel.

Instagram also supports live streaming from desktop computers through Instagram Live Studio.

Take advantage of desktop live streaming for higher-quality video content, especially for tutorials or presentations that benefit from a larger screen. This can also make managing comments easier and engaging with your audience during the live-stream.

Also, Instagram is testing a feature that allows subscribers to reply to specific messages within a Broadcast Channel, facilitating more focused discussions. If you can access this feature, use it to encourage more targeted conversations and gather feedback on specific topics or announcements.

#5: Meta AI

Instagram has integrated Meta AI, a conversational AI assistant, into the platform. This tool can help marketers with various tasks directly within the Instagram app.

Users can access Meta AI through the Explore page to ask questions and get information. It appears as a search option with a purple and blue ring icon.

You can use Meta AI to research hashtags quickly, get content ideas, or find information relevant to your marketing efforts without leaving the Instagram app.

For example, you could ask for the top 10 hashtags in your industry or content ideas related to your niche.

Some accounts may have access to a feature that creates custom AI chatbots for their profiles. This feature allows you to create an AI version of yourself or your brand to interact with followers.

If you gain access to this feature, consider creating a custom AI to handle frequently asked questions or provide basic information about your brand to followers. This could be particularly useful for large accounts or celebrities to manage high volumes of similar inquiries.

Meta is also developing an AI Studio where users can setup and customize their AI assistants. Keep an eye out for its release, as it could provide powerful tools for creating more sophisticated and tailored AI interactions for your audience.

Bonus: Revealbot for Instagram Ads

While not an Instagram feature per se, Peitz mentions Revealbot as a powerful tool for optimizing Instagram ad campaigns.

Revealbot is an automation tool that allows you to create advanced rules for your Instagram ads. It checks your ad performance every 15 minutes (compared to Facebook's 30-minute checks) and can make adjustments based on your predefined rules.

It can help you maximize your ad spend by making data-driven decisions faster than you could manually. For example, it can:

• Automatically pause underperforming ads.
• Increase budgets for high-performing ads.
• Adjust bids based on real-time performance data.

Other Notes From This Episode

• Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Instagram and @Mike_Stelzner on X.
• Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube.

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✋🏽 If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast, please head over to Apple Podcasts, leave a rating, write a review, and subscribe.

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