Top Instagram Updates in 2020 – September Edition

 Ana Gotter

1 week ago

Are you up to date with all the latest and great changes that have recently come to Instagram?

Social media evolves so quickly, and both Facebook and Instagram roll out updates at a rapid-fire rate.

Keeping up with these changes is an important part of staying ahead of the competition and being able to meaningfully connect with your target audience.

This month, there are new features available and new tests happening that can impact how brands and users alike are benefiting from the platform.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at all of the Instagram updates that happened in September 2020, so let’s get started!

New Tools for Shops & Increased Checkout Rollout

Instagram is prioritizing its on-platform, in-app shopping features.

In the next few weeks, all eligible US businesses and creators with a shop will gain access to Instagram’s new in-app checkout.

The checkout is streamlined and takes advantage of the secure and convenient Facebook PAy.

In addition to the wider native checkout roll out, there are a few new great features.

For starters, businesses can now easily open an Instagram Shop with checkout using the Commerce Manager or through an integration with partners like BigCommerce or Shopify.

This was designed to streamline the selling process on Instagram.

Creators can also tag your products in their posts to drive on-platform sales further.

And to help businesses with the rough economic climate, all selling fees through checkout on Instagram are waived through the end of the year.

You can also see more detailed analytics in the Commerce Manager.

Live Shopping is also now coming to Instagram, which allows people to purchase items that they’re viewing from a Live in real time.

Finally, there are now new features to give businesses more control over the merchandising and branding of their shops, including new layouts and the preview of collections.

Instagram Will Pay Users to Deactivate Accounts Temporarily

Instagram and Facebook are currently running an in-depth test to assess their impact on elections in the United States, which has been heavily debated since the 2016 election.

While both platforms have been encouraging users to get registered to vote or to check their voting status, they’ve also reached out to certain users with a fascinating deal: If they’ll deactivate their account up until the election, they’ll be paid.

Facebook is offering $10 to $20 per week to do so, and users who participate in the study but don’t deactivate may opt-in to see content unlike what they typically do.

Facebook is not paying the external researchers, and the goal is to see what impact social media has on voter tendencies.

This is an exciting study that we personally can’t wait to see the results of, especially as it may shape both Instagram’s and Facebook’s policies moving forward.

Automatic Closed Captions Coming for IGTV Videos

Closed captions are an incredible asset to social media videos (and marketing videos in general!). They allow you to connect with your target audience much more effectively.

Plenty of users choose to watch a video with the sound off, which is how it typically starts on auto-play. There are also plenty of users who are deaf or have hearing disabilities, and closed captions make the content accessible to them.

Now, automatic closed captions are going to IGTV videos. When you upload your video, you’ll be able to choose to use “auto-generated captions” by enabling a toggle bar quickly.

Facebook’s (and thus Instagram’s) caption transcriber isn’t going to be entirely, 100% accurate, but it’s more accurate than other solutions out there, and it increases accessibility overall.

And in the meantime, if you’re looking to make your Instagram content more accessible overall, don’t forget to add alternative text to your image posts– these can be used by individuals with screen readers so that they can better use the platform, too.

The Rights Manager is Now Extended to Instagram

Facebook’s Rights Manager is a tool that’s designed to help you find any of your copyrighted images that you’ve submitted for protection on the platform and manage them accordingly.

Now, this is being extended to Instagram, too.

This tool uses visual search features to find any of the copyrighted images that you’ve submitted to Facebook, and then alerts the poster of the potential copyright infringement.

While anyone can take advantage of this, designers, photographers, food bloggers, and other creators are most likely to benefit from this, as they’re typically among the first to have their images used by others without permission.

If you want to stay up to date with what you can and can’t use for your social media marketing, check out our recent post here.

And if you want to learn about how to protect your own content with copyright, see here.

New Apple iOS 14 Update Could Impact Ad Targeting

Apple’s proposed IDFA changes could be a big deal for advertisers- and not in a good way.

The changes will prompt users to opt-in to data tracking for each app, instead of allowing this to happen automatically or requiring users to proactively opt-out.

These new changes may be coming with Apple’s iOS 14 update, and it greatly impacts advertisers using retargeting and tracking based on mobile devices.

This includes the Facebook Audience Network and SDK tracking.

It goes without saying that if it’s exceptionally easy for people to turn off data-tracking and if it’s at the forefront of their mind, most will choose to do so.

This is particularly true now given major privacy concerns, especially considering many users don’t understand exactly how pixel tracking works (and that it’s relatively innocuous).

Watch your campaigns closely, and be prepared to adjust them as needed if things go sideways following a new iOS update release.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to believe that we’re at the end of September, but we’re most of the way through this bizarre year.

While 2020 has undoubtedly been stressful for everyone, to say the least, we can at least take solace in the exceptional advancement of our marketing platforms overall.

This has made it easier for businesses to connect with their audiences even when face-to-face contact wasn’t possible or safe.

Make sure you stay tuned, and we’ll let you know what’s new on the platform next month!

What do you think? Which Instagram updates were you most excited by? What do you think will impact you most, and what do you want to see next? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!