Silent mail, group chat polls, quick song sharing, and more on iOS and Android
Meta has announced the start of the roll out of an Instagram update that it will introduce several new features in the messaging section of the app, available to everyone. The additions will be progressively extended to the whole world and will be valid for both iOS and Android. These are revisions that point to Meta’s long-term strategy, which wants to unify Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp in the future. Here’s what they are, from the company’s official note:
Respond while browsing: Receiving a new message while browsing the feed will allow you to reply without going to the inbox. This new feature makes it much easier and more comfortable to chat when you are already in the app.
Quick sharing: You can easily re-share posts by tapping and holding the share button.
Find out who is online– At the top of the inbox, you can see who is free to chat at that moment.
Play, pause and repeat: thanks to the integration with Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify, you will be able to share a 30-second preview of a song and friends can listen to it directly from the chat window.
Send “silent” messages: Send messages without notifying friends late at night or when they are busy by adding “@silent” to the message, without worrying about sending unwanted notifications.
Lo-fi theme for chat: The new lo-fi chat theme to make conversations more personal.
Create a survey– One of Messenger’s most popular group chat features, to create a poll directly in the group chat.