Listen up, Instagram fans, users, and loyalists! We got some news about Instagram updates coming up.

The social media giant is planning on improving some app features, most of it concentrating on IGTV. The feature’s growing popularity had the geniuses working on improving it and make it more user-friendly. This is also a move to make IGTV a good marketing platform.

What we can see on IGTV right now is most likely just the same as when it was launched. It pretty needs improvement overall, but it was a great start. The content that we see on Instagram TV are now very much varied but this variety adds up to creativity and entertainment that the platform is known for.

Want to know what Instagram got for you? Here’s a list of the app improvements you might see (or have already seen) on IG for the next days.

Improved IGTV Lay-out

To those of you who thought that the IGTV’s layout seems to be over the place, Instagram may have heard your pleas.

One of the Instagram update they’re doing is trying to improve IGTV’s layout. While this feature has not been fully rolled out yet, but we’re expecting to see some changes soon. The current IGTV layout presents you the channels at the top that you need to swipe left and right to see available channels. And below it is what seems like your TV screen.

So, imagine if you want to channel surf in this layout. Swiping left and right (especially that the channel list is at the top) can be pretty challenging. Not to mention, a bit painful for the thumb to reach out that part! We are more accustomed to swiping up or down as this has been the usual navigation for most apps.

Now, Instagram addresses that in its new layout. Based on previews shown and shared by users who have experienced and tested it, it seems like we’ll be browsing through IGTV channels like we do on the news feed.

They’re also making it easier to search for channels and give more adequate results according to the profiles you liked, channels you watched or accessed, and recent search results.

Picture-in-Picture Mode

IGTV is also trying out a picture-in-picture mode. It turns out, this feature has been there before as one IG user revealed to have had used this but suddenly just stopped.

Picture-in-Picture mode is an app’s ability to be viewed through a tiny screen in the foreground and continue to function – or for the case of IGTV, play – while you open another app on the background. This feature is especially helpful to those who want to watch their favorite IGTV channel while doing some work. You can also do this if the channel host mentions something that you want to check on the internet right away.

The PiP mode also makes it easy for users to share Instagram content to other social networking platforms. One can simply drag the PiP screen from Instagram to a new post on Facebook or Twitter. This feature can sell like hotcakes for advertisers since their content can easily be shared!

This feature is especially enticing to those who often multi-task. This is also great for those who just want to listen or watch IG Live or IGTV videos while they are on the go and using another app.

Instagram Live Can Now Have Titles

Titles can be simple but really helpful. Imagine reading or watching a material without any idea what is it about. Yes, you can click through videos without captions, or look at memes without a full context, but you end up just as confused, right?

Instagram is getting that fixed. Less confusion, more context; less time wasted, more entertainment. This is something we could expect with Instagram Live’s new feature where you can now add titles to your live feed.

In the pre-launch screen, a user now have the option to add a title to a live video. The title helps viewers get a clearer context as to what the live video is all about. It also works like a hashtag. The words or phrases used in a title can add to Instagram’s analytics to give you more relevant content based on the videos you watch.

Sounds so simple for a feature, right? But no matter how small this improvement may be, this can drive better engagement from users towards more relevant content.

Private Collection Going Public

First launched in 2017, Collections allow users to save or bookmark posts and group them into categories privately. Like browser bookmarks, this allows easy access to a feed or post whenever you need to access them. This is already a cool and neat feature as it is. It’s always an ease to keep tabs on posts that you are interested in.

This feature was already a success when this was first launched. Almost half of Instagram users save at least one post to their collection in a day. So, imagine the possibility that this feature can get if it goes public!

Now, Instagram wants to up their game when it comes to Collections. The social media giant is thinking of making this private collection public. With this, people can view your Collections and what you kept tabs on. This could drive traffic towards your account. Plus, this feature works best for people who would like to (soon) promote their products or passion to everyone.

What makes this feature twice as interesting as it sounds is because since these collections are discoverable by others, the names of the collections could also function like hashtags. You can create simple, yet highly clickable collection names or categories to drive more traffic to them.

Another thing we heard about the feature which would be really cool is the ability to have some points ‘shoppable’ from the collections themselves. To put it simply, one can add a post where you can invite users to buy or shop straight from the post in your collection.

So, for example you design and create craft bracelets, you can create a collection featuring your bracelets and sell them right from your very post. This way, you’re not only enticing users to browse through your collection, you’re also making purchasing your items easy for all of them.

From IGTV to IG Live, Instagram are taking little steps to improving their platform. We think it’s safe to say that we can expect more features or improvements for our beloved social network.

We can also look forward to more e-Commerce-driven features as Instagram looks to be a more useful social marketing platform than other social networking sites. These may be just little and few steps forward, but these are also steps towards the right direction.

Nothing but appreciate for Instagram and all their efforts. We hope to see more engagement coming from this platform this year!