Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Instagram testing in-app shopping feature from select retail companies

Instagram Tests Shoppable Photo Tags
Instagram doesn’t want users to have to leave the app and go into a subpar browser purchasing window to buy products they find through the social media company. As a potential solution, they are testing out a product-tagging feature where companies can sell their products directly through the social network.

The feature is being tested on iOS Instagram apps just ahead of the holiday season. The new tags work much like tagging a user would work, except now certain test companies will be able to tag their products in their images and Instagram users who happen across these tags will be able to purchase the product within the app. No browser, or third-party processing required. These product tags are initially hidden by default to all users, but Instagram users will see a button that allows them to show the tagged products.

instagram-shoppableThis way the current Instagram experience is not cluttered with a bunch of product tags, but if you are surfing through your Instagram feed and see a killer pair of jeans you want to buy, you can press the button to see the tag and make a purchase.

Technically, the purchase is still being made through the web but users will no longer be required to open a separate browser to complete the purchase. Users will instead see the page opened up within Instagram itself, meaning for a faster and more fluid experience. If the deal does not look as good as they were hoping for, they can simply swipe to go back to their feed without needing to switch out of a separate app.

The launch test partners of the shoppable tags are Abercombie & Fitch, BaubleBar, Coach, Hollister, JackThreads, J.Crew, Kate Spade New York, Levi’s, Lulu’s, Macy’s, Michael Kors, MVMT Watches, Tory Burch, Warby Parker, and Shopbop. More details about this new feature can be found over on the Instagram blog, here.

Editors' Recommendations

Anthony Thurston
Anthony is an internationally published photographer based in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Specializing primarily in…
Instagram enhances messaging experience with new features
An iPhone 13 showcasing Instagram's new messaging features.

Meta has been on a roll this week, raining down a volley of new features on its messaging platforms. Earlier this week, WhatsApp got some much-needed improvements to the voice messages system. And a day before that, the Messenger app introduced support for Slack-like Shortcuts. Today, Instagram has unloaded a host of neat tricks for its direct messages, or DMs, section.

Borrowing a trick from Messenger, Instagram is adding support for a shortcut that lets you send silent messages. Just type @silent before a message, and it will be delivered without pushing a notification on the recipient’s phone. This feature is perfect for sharing weird late-night eureka moments without waking up the other person.

Read more
Instagram pulls stand-alone Hyperlapse, Boomerang apps
Instagram app on the Google Play Store on an Android smartphone.

Instagram seems to be on an app-retirement spree these days. Days after the Meta-owned photo- and video-sharing platform announced that it is shuttering the stand-alone IGTV app, it’s now time for the Hyperlapse and Boomerang apps to receive similar treatment.

As of March 8, 2022, stand-alone apps for the Hyperlapse and Boomerang effects for Android seem to have been pulled off the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store and are no longer available for download, reports TechCrunch. For those unaware, these are apps that Instagram users take advantage of to add effects to videos before uploading the final version of the content on Instagram.

Read more
Instagram’s Take a Break feature will nudge teens to spend less time on the app
Instagram login screen on an iPhone.

Instagram today announced the launch of several measures aimed at making the platform safer for teenagers. Most of these measures come in the form of new features that will be implemented throughout  2022. The first of these features -- called "Take a Break" -- will go live in select countries today.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri first announced the feature in November and teased an expected December rollout. Take a Break, which needs to be turned on manually from Instagram settings, encourages users to spend time away from the app once they reach a preset time limit. Users can set the timer to 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes. Once users reach this limit, the app sends a full-screen alert telling them to take a break from the app. Users will need to tap on the Done button to remove the alert and get back to the app.

Read more