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Announcement

10 November 2016

New to Instagram Stories: Boomerang, mentions and links

BY: Instagram Business Team

San Francisco, CA

Today, we're introducing a few new tools to help you make your story even more fun: Boomerang and mentions. We're also starting to test links inside some stories.

Boomerang

Boomerang lets you turn everyday business moments into something fun and unexpected. You can now easily take a Boomerang inside Instagram.

Swipe right from your feed to open the stories camera. A new format picker under the record button lets you select "Boomerang" mode. Tap record, and the camera will stitch together a burst of photos into a mini video that plays forwards and backwards. Then, share it to your story.

Example of using Boomerang on Instagram Stories
Mentions

Share who you're with or who's visiting your business by mentioning them in your story.

Mentioning people in stories works the same as it does for captions and comments. When you add text to your story, type "@" followed by a username and select the person you'd like to mention. Their username will appear underlined in your story. And when someone taps the mention, they'll see a pop-up that will take them to that profile.

You'll receive a notification in Direct when you've been mentioned in someone else's story. Just tap the preview to go straight to the story for as long as it's live. If someone you don't follow mentions you, you'll see the notification in your message requests.

Example of how to use mentions in your Instagram story
Example of how to tag businesses or customers with Instagram Stories
"See more" links

You may begin to spot "See more" links at the bottom of some stories. This is a test that lets verified accounts add links so that it's easy to learn more. From finding tour dates for Chance the Rapper (@chancetherapper) to learning about a new film starring Dwayne Johnson (@therock) or reading a related article from Bustle (@bustle), tap "See More" or swipe up to view the link within the app.

Example of adding "See more" link to your Instagram story

To learn more about today's updates, take a look at the Instagram Help Centre.

These updates for Instagram Stories are available as part of Instagram version 9.7 available for iOS in the Apple App Store, for Android in Google Play and for Windows 10 in the Windows Store.

BY: Instagram Business Team

San Francisco, CA