Planning out your Instagram feed may not be something that everyone is doing but for those who carefully curate their feed, Later’s visual drag-and-drop planner has been a welcome addition to the social media management landscape. We mentioned Later and its best-time-to-post functionality earlier but Later’s real highlighted feature has been the visual planner, which until now has only been available on its website — users of their mobile app could not take advantage of it.
As of Wednesday, Later pushed updates to both its iOS and Android apps which bring the visual planner from the browser into the apps. This will be a godsend to those who have been using the tool to manage their feeds online but need to make changes with the app out on the go. It works exactly the same as it does on Later’s website, and just to recap – it’s stupid simple.
The drag-and-drop visual planner feature allows users to upload and schedule a batch of images for posting on their Instagram feed. Once the images are uploaded to the app, you can add a caption and any hashtags you like, then unlike in other social schedulers where you would just set a day and time to post, you are given the option to use the visual planner. When you opt to use the visual planner, you are shown a representation of your Instagram feed with the images you are planning to upload. From there, you can click on the images and drag them around the grid until you find an arrangement that you like.
This feature always seemed to be meant for mobile, dragging and dropping is much more user intuitive with your finger on a screen than with a mouse and keyboard. In addition to the visual planner update, the two apps also received some updates to their “ready to post” section and profile switcher (for those managing multiple accounts). This visual planner, when paired with the company’s best-time-to-post feature makes for one of the most powerful Instagram management solutions we know of.
Later’s basic (albeit limited) account is free, so you can sign up and give it a try. If you already happen to be a Later user, you should have received the app update already, but you should be able to find the latest updates live on both the iOS and Android app stores.
