Instagram’s 10th anniversary has come with new features

Instagram is celebrating its 10th birthday. It seems like the app has been around forever. Or it might just be that the decade (on my part) has seemed to have flown by or melded together. Anyway, to celebrate its 10th anniversary Instagram has unveiled a number of new features.

Instagram Stories map feature

Instagram introduced Stories three years ago. They are a fun and interesting way to share posts, thoughts, memes, images and music. To Celebrate its 10th birthday Instagram has introduced a map and calendar.

Users can now get a retrospective of their stories for up to 3 years. I think that it could be pretty cool to have a look back over that length of time to see all those stories. On the other hand, I am a little irked by the fact that Instagram is keeping stories for that long. The assumption was that they would be deleted as time wore on.

Instagram anti-bullying features

There are two features under the anti-bullying umbrella. The first is “Hide Potentially Offensive Comments”. Users will be able to hide comments underneath posts that they find unsavoury. If a user wishes, they can see those comments by tapping on “View Hidden Comments”.

The second feature is for those who repeatedly leave offensive remarks underneath a post. Instagram already has an AI-Powered feature that notifies users if the post they have left may be considered offensive. With this new feature, Instagram will be earmarking repeat offenders.

A prompt will come up that will inform whoever is about to post to reassess before they do.

Instagram icon

One last feature feels more like a call back to Instagram’s evolution. Users will be able to select from a range of Instagram icons. The options range from a number of different colour options as well as classic Instagram icons.

Users on the platform will continue to see more features being added. Facebook recently announced that Messenger and Instagram DMs will be able to communicate with one another. Instagram DMs had been lagging behind on some features and to catch it up with FB Messenger there will be a host of new features coming soon.