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Instagram’s Map is here, and this is how you can turn your location off

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It’s only been a couple of days since the Instagram Map launched , and from the looks of our social feeds, people are not happy about it. Responses have ranged from being mildly annoyed that Instagram is ripping off Snapchat’s Snap Maps instead of offering a default feed that only contains your friends’ posts, to high alert outrage about possibly privacy implications and doxing, as well as how domestic violence victims or others could be put at risk of stalking via the app. Meta says the feature is an “opt-in” only way to share your active location with the friends you choose, or a way to browse the content friends and creators are posting, organized by the locations tagged to their posts and Reels. How to turn your location off on the Instagram Map If the only thing you want to do is turn Instagram Maps location sharing off, here’s Instagram’s instructions on how to make sure the feature is disabled within the app (on both Android and iOS): Tap Messages in the ...
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Instagram adds a reposts feed and rips off Snap Maps

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Instagram is getting several new features that pull from competitors, and it’s updating a controversial feature that it added earlier this year. Starting today , users will have the ability to repost public Reels and grid posts from other accounts. And similar to TikTok, reposts will be collected in a designated tab on your profile and sprinkled into the feeds of people who follow you. It’s a small but meaningful shift from how Instagram currently operates: until now, the most efficient way to share other users’ content was to repost it on your Instagram Story. Now, you can essentially reblog it. Instagram is also pulling from Snapchat and adding an opt-in location map that lives in your private messages. The map shows the last active location for friends who have opted in to the feature; it also pulls content from specific locations, such as a music festival, where many people are posting from. It’s the Snap Map but redesigned for Instagram. Finally, Instagram is upda...
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Instagram changes its algorithm after being accused of steering predators to children

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Instagram accounts that primarily feature images of children, but are run by adult users, will no longer be recommended to “potentially suspicious adults.” The update was announced in a blog post detailing the latest expansion of Meta’s child safety features, which includes new blocking and reporting capabilities for teenagers and additional protections for adult-managed accounts that feature children. This comes after a 2023 lawsuit accused Facebook and Instagram of becoming a “ marketplace for predators in search of children ,” claiming that Meta’s platforms “allowed users to search for, like, share, and sell a crushing volume of [child sexual abuse material].” The same year, an investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that Instagram’s recommendation algorithms were actively promoting networks of pedophiles .  Meta has since introduced a variety of online safety features for Facebook and Instagram users who are under 18 , and some of these are now being e...
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Instagram isn’t just for square photos anymore

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Instagram now supports photos that have a 3:4 aspect ratio, meaning that when you upload a photo with that ratio, “it’ll now appear just exactly as you shot it,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri says in a Threads post . He also notes that “almost every phone camera defaults to” that format. An image from Instagram’s broadcast channel shows how the change makes a difference. You can already post images with a rectangular aspect ratio of 4:5, but with 3:4, your photo won’t be cropped at the ends. 3:4 photos are supported with single-photo uploads and with carousels, according to the channel. If you want, you can still post photos with a square or 4:5 aspect ratio. The change follows Instagram’s move in January to make profile grids feature rectangles instead of squares. “At this point, most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation,” Mosseri said at the time. * This article was originally published here
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Google says Instagram fixed a battery drain issue on Android

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If you’ve been having unusual battery drain issues on your Pixel phone lately, Instagram might be to blame. In a new support post , Google says that Instagram has updated its app to address the issue. The fix comes in Instagram version 382.0.0.49.84, which you can grab from Google Play now. If you don’t see the option to update, it could be that you’ve already got it. You can check by long-pressing the Instagram app, tapping “App info,” then scrolling to the bottom to look for the version number.  It looks like Instagram may have been responsible for complaints about battery drain on Pixel devices since a Pixel software update earlier this month. 9to5Google reports that, when asked about the battery drain issue, Google pointed to the support post announcing the Instagram update. The outlet wrote in mid-May that the issue seemed to impact every Pixel model that got the May update, from the Pixel 6 through the Pixel 9. It’s not clear whether other Android phones were hit ...
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3D Instagram photos are coming to Meta Quest headsets

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Meta is beginning to test showing 3D photos on Instagram if you’re looking at your feed on a Meta Quest VR headset. “Thanks to our AI view synthesis algorithms, we can transform the existing photos that show up in Instagram feed pixel by pixel – no fancy 3D cameras required,” Meta says in a blog post . “That means flat photos that weren’t originally captured in 3D will automatically be converted into an immersive format that gives 2D images a sense of depth when you view them on Quest.” The test starts this week. “Not everyone will have access to 3D Instagram photos on Quest – and even if you’re in the test group, you may not see it right away,” Meta says. And it’s not the first time Meta has dabbled with 3D photos; the company rolled out a 3D photo feature for Facebook in 2018 .  The test of 3D photos in Instagram is being introduced as part of Meta Quest’s v77 update, which includes a bunch of other features. One notable one, also in testing, is Navigator, which Met...
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Threads was originally going to live inside the Instagram app

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Instagram boss Adam Mosseri is on the stand today in Meta’s antitrust trial . In trying to prove the social network is not a monopoly, he shared that the Threads app could have been just a feature inside of Instagram. Meta was working on built-in Threads features for Instagram first to compete with Twitter, which pioneered text-first social media apps. But Mosseri says the team made the “very contentious decision internally” to move the features out of Instagram. Meta’s team, according to Mosseri, found having Instagram host text posts could be confusing to users since the Twitter-like model is entirely different, where replies and original posts can be equally prominent. Comparatively, on Instagram, and other apps like YouTube and TikTok, replies are subordinated to original posts. Still, Threads is heavily linked to Instagram. You need an Instagram account to use it, and your profile on both platforms link back to each other. Instagram also adds Threads posts inside of ...
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