Instagram repost apps are getting buried soon. Instagram is bringing an official repost feature which lets you repost others' posts into your feed.
Meta has officially confirmed to Techcrunch that it plans to test the repost feature to a small group of people soon.
A Meta spokesperson revealed this to Techcrunch: “We’re exploring the ability to reshare posts in Feed - similar to how you can reshare in Stories - so people can share what resonates with them, and so original creators are credited for their work."
The feature was spotted by @MattNavarra on Twitter. As you can see from the screenshot, the reposts will have a different tab on your profile. And the reposts will not be shown on the main feed.
Instagram Reposts Tab on profiles?!What’s dis Adam? pic.twitter.com/WayWCJGBfxSeptember 7, 2022
Currently, you can share the posts of other people to stories, and that's the only official way to have a similar post like a repost. But there have been many unofficial repost apps available since the early days of Instagram. This is eerily similar to the repost feature that TikTok recently introduced in the US. It is also the same feature Twitter has had for ages, the retweet.
As with any other test feature, it is unclear when Meta plans to roll out the feature widely to all users. Keep an eye out for the feature; it might show up on your account soon.
Will this improve Instagram?
Users are already calling out their frustration with recent changes in Instagram, which has moved in to make reels take the center stage. It is natural to ask what this will mean to Instagram and how it will change the platform.
It needs to be seen how Instagram implements this feature, and if it will complement the experience or degrades it. Recently, Instagram rolled back on its heavy push on Reels video, which made Instagram more like a copycat of TikTok. We can assume Meta would be even more careful with this new repost feature, which could change the whole landscape of the platform.
Instagram has been testing out various features back to back; recently it ripped off the BeReal app with its ‘Candid Challenges’ feature and was also caught testing the vertical stories feature.
