People have been pestering Instagram for an official “regram” feature since before it sold out to Facebook. While the company offers sharing of posts through private messages, it doesn’t allow users to share posts to their feeds.
Last month the firm relented somewhat and offered the sharing of existing posts from other users to Instagram Stories, the site’s Snapchat-like ephemeral photos and videos tool.
Now the company is giving users the ability to add a friends’ story to their own, so long as they’ve been tagged it. Instagram is calling the feature @mention sharing.
Users will receive a DM from the originator when they’ve been mentioned in a Story and will have the option to add it to their own. The photo of video then becomes a sticker, which can be edited or annotated before posting to the recipient’s own story.
Instagram points out, you’ll only be able to re-share if your friend’s account is public.
It looks a little something like this…
Upon the launch of the initial re-sharing to stories tool, Instagram made clear this isn’t the full regram feature users had lobbied for, but it will enable posts to be shared to their Stories as Stickers. Users will be able to tap the paper airplane icon beneath posts in the same way they would when sending posts to friends via DM.
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The option to “Create a story with this post” will appear within the Share menu above your favourite contacts. Of course, only posts from public accounts can be shared via the Stories.
The firm, which began testing the new feature around three months ago, is launching it on Android phones today. The iOS launch is scheduled for the next week or so.
Of course, if you really want to repost articles to your feed, there are plenty of third-party solutions that allow you to do so. Some users have taken to screen-shotting post and then reediting within the app.
Whether Instagram will render that redundant by launching a regram feature eventually remains to be seen.
In a blog post the company writes: “When you come across something in feed that inspires you — like a post from a friend raising money for a cause or a photo of a new design from your favorite brand — you can now quickly share that post as a sticker to your story for your friends and followers to see.”
Do you think Instagram will ever embrace the regram? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
