Johannesburg - Instagram recently celebrated 10 years in the social media space and in keeping up with the celebrations, the company has added two new features to help users find old stories posted over the last three years and to reduce abusive behaviour.
Instagram has updated the story archive that includes a new monthly calendar view, which shows the days you posted each story, alongside a map which shows story locations.
The story archive was introduced in 2017 to house photos and videos you no longer want to display on your public profile. Previously users would package old stories in the archive, give them a name and share them on their profile where they will appear above their other posts.
The new calendar and map just offer a better way to find old stories. The archive is private, visible only to you, but there’s an option to re-share them publicly on your profile or stories feed. The new Stories Map and monthly calendar view are rolling out now and can be accessed from the “archive” menu under your user profile.
In the latest round of Instagram anti-bullying features, the service will automatically hide offensive and abusive posts. However, users can still view hidden comments by tapping the ‘View Hidden Comments’ button.
“We know from research that, while people don’t want to be exposed to negative comments, they want more transparency into the types of comments that are hidden,” the company said in a blog post.
The company is also adding warnings for users who repeatedly post potentially offensive comments to try and encourage them to think twice before posting.
“Since launching comment warning, we saw that reminding people of the consequences of bullying on Instagram and providing real-time feedback as they are writing the comment is the most effective way to shift behaviour,” the post concludes.
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