by Google
Instagram is changing faster than ever. New Reposts similar to retweets are appearing, an interactive social map with location sharing, and a Friends in Reels tab that shows you what your loved ones are watching. Meta is also launching AI lip-syncing video translations, studies are advising people to post more often, and tracking screenshots as an engagement metric may also be added to the game.
1. Reposts (Sharing Posts and Reels)
The new Reposts feature will allow you to share other creators' posts and Reels directly to your own feed, similar to TikTok.
When shared, the post will appear in the main feed of your followers and in a separate "Reposts" tab on your profile, where others can see everything you've shared.
Importantly, Instagram preserves credits to the original author, meaning their name, profile photo, and a link to the original post will be displayed. This feature has the potential to increase creators' reach, as their content can reach a whole new audience and support the community as creators promote each other's work.
Instagram is responding to the growing popularity of content sharing on other platforms (e.g. TikTok has a "Repost" option for videos and X/Twitter has retweets) and is trying to encourage a more "social" experience instead of purely passive scrolling.
The feature is currently available to select accounts and is gradually expanding, which means that not all users may see it yet.
2. Instagram Map (Location Sharing)
Instagram has expanded its functionality with an interactive social map, which allows users to voluntarily share their current location with selected people. This is a feature that combines elements of Snap Map from Snapchat and Live Location from WhatsApp, but with Instagram's own visual processing.
The user can set the location to be visible to all friends (i.e. people you follow and who follow you), only Close Friends (close friends) or custom lists (e.g. colleagues, family).
The map shows not only the location itself, but also recent posts tagged with the given location, such as Reels, Stories or notes in Instagram Notes.
Are you asking about security and privacy? The feature is off by default and you have to turn it on manually. It also includes parental controls within the Family Center, so parents can limit or completely disable location sharing for children.
While the feature has the potential to better connect people, it is already raising discussions about privacy and security, especially among creators who don't want their location available in real time.
3. "Friends" tab in Reels
Instagram is introducing a new "Friends" section directly in the Reels interface, which is designed to help users discover content from their close network faster. Unlike the main algorithmic Reels feed, which often shows videos from completely unknown creators, this tab is focused on the social dimension of the platform.
The “Friends” tab displays Reels that your friends have created, liked, commented, or shared/reposted. This is to ensure that users see more content that someone in their circle has already found interesting, instead of completely random videos.
Privacy Settings
Along with this feature, Instagram introduced new options for managing the visibility of interactions:
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Hide interactions – you can decide whether others can see what you've liked, commented on, or shared.
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Silent Quiet Mode - temporarily pauses notifications and signals to others that you don't want to be disturbed at the moment.
Why Instagram is introducing it
According to Meta's internal data, only about 7% of the content in the main feed comes from the user's friends. The new tab is an effort to increase this share and strengthen the sense of "community" - that is, to return Instagram to its original idea of sharing among acquaintances, but in the modern Reels format.
Benefits for creators
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Better organic distribution of content - if one of your followers interacts with your video, it may appear in the "Friends" feeds of their friends.
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The ability to use this format to promote new Reels without paying for advertising.
4. Meta launches AI translations of audio in videos. It even lip-syncs
Meta has introduced a new feature that can translate spoken content in videos using artificial intelligence while adjusting lip movements to match the translated audio.
This will allow Facebook users to watch videos in a different language while keeping the voice close to the original. Meta says that the Meta AI Translations feature uses the tone and timbre of the original voice to make the result sound as authentic as possible.
To start with, automatic translation between English and Spanish is available, with more languages coming later. Creators will be able to choose to enable voice translation, automatic lip-syncing, or just audio translation in the Reels editor. They can review and approve the translation in the Professional Dashboard before publishing.
This new feature could open the door for creators to completely new audience groups and break down language barriers on social networks.
5. Posting More Often as the Key to Success
The article “New Study Suggests That Posting More Often Is Key to IG Growth”, published on August 13, 2025 on Social Media Today, discusses interesting data from a study by Buffer, which focuses on how often we should post on Instagram to achieve better reach and follower growth.
1. The more often, the better - Buffer analyzed more than 2 million posts from 100,000 IG accounts. The results show that posting 3–5 times a week can more than double follower growth compared to accounts that post less frequently.
2. Higher reach per post - Posting 3–5 times a week yields approximately 12% increase in reach per post. Publishing even more frequently, such as 6–9 times a week, can increase reach by up to 24%.
3. Quality still matters - Buffer warns that while posting more often can boost your numbers, the quality of your content is still key. Adding too often without thinking can lead to a decrease in audience interest.
Instagram's algorithm also values shares in DMs. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, emphasized that shares via private messages (sends) are a strong signal to the algorithm, which has a big impact on reach.
Experimenting with Reels can increase organic reach. According to an IG study on "trial Reels", up to 80% of creators who started using them saw an increase in reach among non-followers.
6. Instagram is considering counting screenshots in metrics
Adam Mosseri admitted that Instagram could track screenshots as an indicator of engagement in the future. According to him, it is an interesting idea that he will submit to the team for consideration.
Screenshots often expand the reach of content outside the platform itself - Twitter also showed a similar thing, where posts were massively shared on other applications. At a time when direct interactions on Instagram are declining and views are becoming the main metric, screenshots could be another signal of deeper audience interest.
