Instagram begins public release of “Notes”; experiments with Candid Stories and Collaborative Collections

Instagram has released a slew of updates today aimed at streamlining users’ ability to stay in touch with their social circles. Among the many new features being introduced to the platform is one called Notes, which might potentially rival Twitter in popularity.

Twitter Note is a new way to write beyond 280 characters in a single piece of content with the inclusion of photos, videos, GIFs, and Tweets. Twitter started testing Notes in June for users in the U.S, U.K, Canada, and Ghana  noting that they will start to see a new “Write” tab, which is where they can write and access all of their Notes.

Similarly, Instagram says, Notes will enable users to share their thoughts and see what their friends are up to.

“Notes are short posts of up to 60 characters using just text and emojis,” the company said in a blog post.

To leave a note, you will have to go to the top of your inbox, select those you follow back or people on your Close Friends list, and your note will appear at the top of their inbox for 24 hours. “Replies to notes will arrive as DMs in your inbox,” Instagram notes.

Instagram Notes stands out among the other new features because it allows users to have public, text-based conversations with one another. Although it has clear parallels to social media sites like Twitter, the present implementation’s user experience is very different.

Instagram started testing Notes almost exactly one month into the time Twitter rolled out a Beta version of the same feature; and that period in July, it found that users liked having “a lightweight, easy way to share what’s on their mind and start conversations.”

When compared to other platforms, Instagram’s rate of feature iteration is rather fast after you factor in the necessary testing time. Not long after Elon Musk announced that Twitter would soon allow users to compose tweets of up to 4,000 characters, Instagram released its own version of the same feature.

In addition to Notes, Instagram has also revealed that it is experimenting with new features for Stories like Group Profiles and Candid Stories. The former enables Instagrammers to start and join “Group Profiles,” where they and their friends may share posts and experiences in a single, unified account.

Candid Stories is a new way to capture and share live moments in a story that’s only visible to those who also share their own. These can be captured from the stories camera, the multi-author story at the top of feed, or from the daily notification reminder starting after the first candid.

Finally, Instagram is now testing a new feature called Collaborative Collections, which allows users to bond with one another over common interests. A group or individual direct messages can be used to save posts to a shared collection.