When Social Media apps were created they were all quite different and they all had a purpose that was defined, with individual features that distinguished them, but the landscape has changed vastly since the early days and now it seems like there is a competition for which app can accumulate the most functions in one and can poach the largest amounts of users. Instagram seems to be one of the survivors of this battle for supremacy and they have made significant changes that have set it apart over the years while still retaining and implementing features that users love. The last one? A button that reminds us of the retweet feature that was so loved by Twitter users.
Twitter was a product of its era, the first time where opinions were democratized and users could share not just their opinions in the void, but also opinion of those thy agreed and disagreed with while giving them credit. It was a unique experience that made sense at the time and in the context of its creation. Instagram was just seen as a place to store and share memories in the form of photographs, and the emphasis was on creating a perfect grid, not necessarily on getting the content shared.
That is why for many years, and until now, the only way to share something from another account was through direct messages and later on once the platform got involved with short form content, through Stories.
The evolution of Instagram and the importance of the retweet button now
Once Twitter changed from a democratized platform to an echo chamber for its owner and its users splintered away into smaller but less toxic and popular platforms, it seemed like the only winner from the original Social Media giants was Instagram as Facebook lost relevance years ago and YouTube has chosen to maintain its original purpose.
But Instagram has slowly but surely transformed into a place where we do not just share pictures and videos, we now share messages in those mediums, using them to express our views, frustration and opinions, and since the caption has no word limit and can house an enormous amount of hashtags, it also helps spread a message without having to mince words. But it is still an app based on popularity, as only those with massive followings can get their message across.
This changed when the metrics changed and paid content also because a thing in this app, which forced users to ask followers to share their content to meet these new popularity metrics, but the way to share was inefficient, both for posters, those engaged with the content and Instagram itself, and that is where the new retweet button comes in.
Technically called “repost” button, it has the same shape and function as the original, so it may take a minute for users to get used to the new name, but since it will accomplish the same thing, the new name may not actually catch on. Some users have already seen this feature in testing: the button appears next to the “like,” comment, and send buttons, but they have not been allowed to use it just yet.
When trying to use it, the app displays a warning stating that it cannot be published yet, as it is in the testing phase, but it will not take long until we are able to test it out ourselves. Instagram has also confirmed that it is working on this feature to make it easier to highlight interesting posts without having to take screenshots or use external applications, but they are still working on how to ensure that the original author of the content is always acknowledged, preventing others from sharing posts without giving credit.