Business Standard

Testing feature to add music to feed posts in India, Brazil: Instagram

If a user clicks on the song, they will be taken to an audio page that showcases all Feed posts that have used that song

The hearing follows reporting by the Wall Street Journal that Facebook understood the negative effects its photo-sharing app, Instagram, has on young users, including anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, and yet downplayed the research.

The feature is being tested with a small percentage of Instagram's global community

Press Trust of India New Delhi

Instagram on Thursday said India is among the first three countries where it is testing a new feature that will allow users to add music to their feed posts.

India is among the three countries where this will be tested first, the other two being Brazil and Turkey, according to a statement.

"Music plays an instrumental role in enabling people to share, connect and express themselves on Instagram. With this test, Instagram hopes to give its community a way to add a soundtrack to their Feed photos, like they can with Reels and Stories already," it added.

If a user clicks on the song, they will be taken to an audio page that showcases all Feed posts that have used that song.

 

This feature is being tested with a small percentage of Instagram's global community and expanded based on the learning and feedback from the Instagram community, it said.

Instagram, which is part of Meta (formerly called Facebook), is increasingly launching many of its features in India first. Last year, it had launched its new format 'Reels' that allows users to create and share short videos and India was among the first countries where it was launched. The company went on to launching a separate tab for 'Reels' and India was the first country to get this feature.

India was also among the first two countries where Instagram launched Live Rooms the feature where four people can go Live together.

In July this year, Instagram said it is testing a new 'Collab' feature in India and the UK that will allow users to collaborate with others on Feed Posts and Reels.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Nov 18 2021 | 9:31 PM IST

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