Instagram purposefully lacks a “Regram” button to promote original sharing, but it’s easing up on that philosophy when it comes to Stories. Instagram now confirms to TechCrunch that it’s testing an option that lets you share public feed posts from other users to your Story. This could let you add commentary and overlaid stickers to a meme, celebrity post or even a friend’s photo. For users whose lives aren’t so interesting, resharing could give them something to post.
Instagram confirmed the test and TechCrunch sent it a screenshot posted by Zachary Shakked. The company tells us “We’re always testing ways to make it easier to share any moment with friends on Instagram.” The feature is currently only testing with a small percentage of users, but it seems like a sensible addition that I bet will get rolled out further.
For privacy, users with public accounts can go to their Settings to turn off the ability for others to reshare their posts. Even if you don’t have the reshare option yet, you can still find the privacy setting now. Then again, people could still just screenshot their posts. In fact, this was such a common activity that it likely encouraged Instagram to formalize it with resharing. Instagram was rumored to be testing a Regram button for sharing feed posts back to the feed, but that appears to have been false, or at least never rolled out.
Tagging friends in memes and posts has become one of Instagram’s most popular emergent behaviors. Those long comment threads of people’s handles weren’t that useful though, so Instagram made it simple to send someone else’s post as a Direct message. The new test expands that idea from private sharing to close friends into broadcasting.
You can see the re-sharing feature in action here:
Now that Snapchat is growing more swiftly after yesterday’s blockbuster earnings report, Instagram needs to be on its toes. That means constantly adding new features that truly improve the app’s experience without bloating it with so many niche options that Instagram becomes confusing.