On Monday, Instagram announced that it is finally adding the ability for users to listen to previews of songs they’ve shared from Spotify in Stories.
While Instagram has long allowed users to share songs from Spotify on their stories, it has done so without sound, simply providing a link to the song on the streaming platform. Now, when a user posts a song to their story, viewers will be able to listen to a preview of the song right on Instagram.
This small but noticeable change makes it easier to share and find music on the platform without having to leave the app.
The move comes a few weeks after the social network launched a similar feature for Instagram Notes. Users can now stream songs from Spotify directly to their Instagram notes, allowing their followers to see and check out what music they’re listening to in real time.
New features could help position Instagram as a center of musical discovery and, in turn, encourage people to spend more time on the app. The development of music features could also make Instagram more competitive with TikTok, which already dominates this space and influences music charts around the world.
On Monday, Instagram also announced that it is launching new fonts for Stories and Reels this year. To start, the platform is introducing a limited-time font inspired by singer-songwriter Rosalie’s handwriting.
Users can unlock secret symbols drawn by Rosalia by entering characters such as ” 🙂 “, ***” and “<3,” Instagram said in a statement.
