You can finally repost content on Instagram

Whichever social media platform you prefer, the range of features is pretty similar across all of them. Instagram, however, has only just added the option to repost content.

Instagram has been testing the reposting of reels and posts for some time, but it has only just officially launched to all users. But this is not all. Reposting is just one of a trio of new features to hit Instagram.

As part of a package of additions that Instagram says will “help you connect with friends”, the social media giant has also added something that feels like a blast from the past. The Instagram map makes it possible to see the location of Instagram friends on a map – something that was an option of Twitter and other platforms in the past.

But Instagram has taken into account people’s increased interest in privacy and security, and has chosen to make location sharing an opt-in feature. If you don’t want to share your location, you do not have to.

And if you do decide to opt in, there are decent controls over who you share your location with. Choose between friends (followers you follow back), Close Friends, or Only selected friends. More than this, it is also possible to choose to not share location in specific places or with specific people.

While this is a handy way to see where friends are, Instagram is also pushing it as a feature that will be of interest to parents:

If you’re a parent with supervision set up for your teen, you have control over their location sharing experience on the map. You will receive a notification if your teen starts sharing their location, giving you the opportunity to have important conversations about how to safely share with friends. You can decide whether your teen has access to location sharing on the map and see who your teen is sharing their location with.

As well as being a way to keep an eye on where people are, the map is a new means to discovering content – and this can be used whether you opt in or out of location sharing.

Regardless of whether or not you choose to share your location, you can use the map to explore location-based content. From checking out stories from friends who’ve gone to a concert or finding a new place to hangout from a local creator’s reel, there’s content to help you and your friends connect with the world around you.

More Instagram additions

For many Instagram users, not being able to easily repost content has been something of a bugbear – so the arrival of this very option will be welcomed. Instagram says of this feature:

With reposts, you can repost public reels and feed posts, making it easier for you to share your interests with your friends. Reposts will be recommended to your friends’ and followers’ feeds, and they’ll also be in a separate tab on your profile, so you can always go back to revisit your reposts.

Reposts are credited to the original poster. If you’re a creator, this means that if your content is reposted by someone else, it may be recommended to that person’s followers, even if those people don’t follow you. This gives creators a new opportunity to reach more people whenever you create something worth sharing.

Rounding off the trio of new features is a new tab in Reels. Here you can see public content your friends have interacted with or recommendations from Blends you’ve started and easily start conversations about them. This may sound familiar to some as Instagram has already rolled this out to a limited number of users, but now the rollout is global.