Instagram Enhances Notes Feature with Music and Translation
Meta appears to be developing a comprehensive Twitter substitute that integrates with Instagram. However, for the time being, Instagram’s Notes feature is receiving an enhancement that includes music and translation capabilities.
Since December, the feature has allowed users to share short status updates, including text and emoji, on their profiles. Friends and Followers will see these mini-broadcasts in their inbox. Adding music to your notes helps you express yourself, says Meta. You can include a 30-second clip of the song and a caption. You might think of this as a condensed version of an AIM away message, where you can send a song alongside a song lyric that vaguely hints at how you feel about a certain person, or take a passive-aggressive shot at one of your enemies.
Additionally, you can flip notes by tapping. This can be handy if one of your friends tends to send their notes in a language that you may not know well.
Meta says that many teenagers have taken to Notes. More than 100 million teen accounts have posted comments in the past three months. The music and translation are both strong additions to the feature and will likely go down well with teenagers.
Meanwhile, Meta has confirmed that it is working on a “separate decentralized social network” focused on text-based updates. According to reports, you can log in with your Instagram credentials and populate your profile with information from your current account. The service plugs into the ActivityPub web protocol that runs on Mastodon, and Meta is said to be trying to get high-profile users like Oprah and the Dalai Lama to use it.
