‘OMG, what is this?’: Australian Instagram users react to new feature

If you opened up your Instagram app in the last day or so, you might have noticed an odd new feature.

The new “notes” feature is tucked away in users’ direct message inboxes and gives them the ability to post short status notes to followers (who they follow back) or to their close friends list.

The notes, which are limited to 60 characters, sit atop the user’s direct messages page, can be swiped like a feed and disappear after 24 hours.

The feature first popped up in some countries in June, but a local Meta spokesperson said the company started testing it on users in Australia on Wednesday.

“We’re testing Notes so people can quickly share thoughts with their friends,” the spokesperson said.

Instagram influencer and former I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! contestant David Subritzky saw the change on Wednesday and is a fan.

“I woke up in the morning and I saw the new notes feature and it was literally someone saying ‘oh my god, what is this?,’ said Subritzky, who has 40,000 followers on the app.

“So, I just put a note and I said ‘cheeky middle finger question mark’ because I just wanted to mix it up a little bit because I felt like everyone was being so boring about it,” he said.

“That many influencers on Instagram post pictures that they’ve highly edited and taken four days ago. I think Instagram needs more authenticity because there is not enough of it.

“It reminds me of MSN messenger and old Facebook statuses.”

Another user, Abdul Yusuf agreed and said the similarity to the Microsoft instant messaging app that was popular in the 2000s was uncanny.

“On MSN messenger you had your profile picture and right next to it was your ‘personal message’,” said Yusuf.

“I would encourage people to have a look at the old images of MSN, the similarities are uncanny.”

Instagram has been known to take inspiration from other social media platforms. Namely, its “Stories” feature was similar to those already on Snapchat, and its “Reels” came shortly after the widespread success of TikTok.

For Gen-Z Instagram users who were too young for MSN messenger like Tara Aksentijevic, the notes feature is lacklustre.

“It’s a bit pointless and unnecessary,” said the 17-year-old. “They could have fixed other issues instead of adding new features. I don’t think people are going to use it for long.”

Associate professor and social scientist Lauren Rosewarne from the University of Melbourne said it’s no coincidence the change has come as many Twitter users threaten to leave the platform after its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk.

“It doesn’t feel accidental,” Rosewarne said.

“The idea of a status update with a limited number of characters is coming at a time when we will see a bit of an exodus from Twitter as a result of Elon Musk’s ownership.”

Rosewarne also said Meta is especially good at making its products multifunctional and keeping users on them.

“It’s an attempt to get you to stay at their house, rather than going off and using other platforms, because, as we know, part of the business model of these platforms is to get you to stay as long as possible,” she said.

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“It could also potentially be to create an incentive to spend more time in your DMs as well.”

The update comes as Meta said it would lay off more than 11,000 employees, just over a tenth of its global workforce, after a collapse in revenue.

However, for some loyal users of the app, notes is a positive change that has created more room for conversations.

“It’s definitely opened communication with friends that I’ve not spoken to in a while, especially the funny ones,” said Subritzky.

It is unclear whether Instagram notes will become a permanent feature of the app.

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