After testing it internally over the last few months, Instagram has now launched a new, live test of its collaborative posts option, which will enable others to contribute to carousel feed posts, providing a new engagement option in the app.
As you can see in this example, with this new option, users will have the ability to allow others to submit photos or videos to be included within their carousel post. So if it’s a photo from a party, for example, or a group outing, you’ll be able to ask others to add their own perspectives to create a collaborative collection.
As per this overview, which was spotted in testing back in July, the original creator will have the ability to approve or reject any submissions, while the post will only exist on the creators’ timeline, not any other contributors.
Each addition will display the individual contributors’ handle, along with when that post was created.
It could be a good way to encourage more engagement and interaction in-stream, which is part of IG’s broader push to lean into collaborative posting options.
Earlier this month, Instagram also added the ability to share a Story with multiple group lists at once, so that you can better curate who sees your updates.
Instagram also recently added the capacity to share feed posts with Close Friends only, providing another way to facilitate more enclosed group engagement.
These types of more collaborative, group engagement aligned options lean into the way that people are increasingly interacting in the app, within more intimate groups, as opposed to seeking maximum reach through public posting.
As such, it makes sense for IG to look to more direct engagement options, and it could be a good way to encourage more participation, while also giving Instagram more insight into who your close connections are, which could help define discovery.
The new collaborative posting option is now being tested with selected users.
