By: Nick Gambino
Instagram has been making a lot of changes in the past couple years to keep TikTok and other platforms at bay. Especially with TikTok coming for their head, forcing them to pivot to short-form videos with Reels, they are in an “innovate or die” era.
As part of innovating, they’ve announced some big new features in Instagram DMs.
Nicknames
You can now give people in your chat a nickname. This is already a feature over in Facebook’s Messenger, but now you can do it on Instagram too. It’s a great way to personalize your conversations, adding a funny little name for whoever you’re chatting with. It’s especially fun in group chats.
These nicknames only apply to that one chat conversation. These nicknames will not follow you outside of that chat, even into other DMs. For example, if you give your friend Jeff the nickname “Pink Pony,” he will still be “Jeff” in other group chats he may appear in.
Stickers
Instagram is going all in on stickers. They’ve added a whopping 300 stickers across 17 packs so that you can use them as quick, funny reactions in your DMs. They are also allowing you to favorite stickers that you’ve created or that have been shared with you by friends.
Location Sharing
Instagram DMs is a popular messaging platform outside of the content feed that Instagram provides. Some use Insta DMs as their primary means of texting people. So it makes sense that Meta has added a way to share live locations directly in DMs.
You’ll be able to share your location for up to an hour or lock in the location on a map with a pin. It’s a great way to plan activities or keep you on your friends’ radar. Once you turn it on, you’ll see the words “You are sharing your location” at the top near the chat name.
With people using IG for more than scrolling and creating, expect them to add a lot more DM features going forward.
