It seems these days, that not a week goes by without Instagram updating their platform, whether it’s a feature launch, an algorithm change, or simply a facelift to its UI. Over the past few years, we’ve grown to love Instagram for what it is, a great place to share memories, and consume the content you love in a visual format. Below, we’re going to break down all the changes we seen the platform go through in the past 12 months, and what it means for marketers as we quickly approach 2020.

Instagram: 2019 In Review

February

At the beginning of February, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced that they would officially be making it easier for users to discover and watch IGTV content. Previously, IGTV lived in its own tab, almost siloed from the rest of Instagram. With this change, users could now post the first 60 seconds of their IGTV into an Instagram post. Once that 60 seconds was up, viewers were prompted to “keep watching”, which if selected, would direct them to IGTV and allow them to watch the rest of the video. Almost instantly, this caused IGTV viewing figures to soar, not only making it a better experience for the user, but a more viable option for brands.

March

March came around, and with it came a much more seamless shopping experience on Instagram, with the introduction of “Checkout on Instagram”. This change now allowed users to make a purchase straight from the app for the first time ever, instead of being redirected to an external website, which was previously the experience. Only released to select brands, the “Checkout on Instagram” feature now took you to a payment screen, without ever having to exit the app. A huge win for brands, who now have to worry less about losing a sale while the customer works through an external purchase journey.

June

In June, Instagram took a large step to legitimizing the role of the “Instagram Influencer” even further, with the introduction of its “Paid Partnership” tool. Only available to verified brands and individuals, the paid partnership tool was built to create a better synergy between brands and influencers, making the content more official and transparent to the users consuming it. Previously, Influencers would have to state either in the caption or the hashtags, that the post was indeed a sponsored post, however, with the introduction of this tool, it would be clear to see that the post is indeed a paid partnership.

July

Mid-summer saw one of the biggest updates to Instagram since its inception, the rollout of its hidden likes trial. One might say that Instagram’s entire identify was built on the foundation of likes. I mean, other than coming to the platform to see what our friends and family are up to, we also open the app to consume the internet’s most viral content, whether it’s a photo of Kylie Jenner’s newborn, or a picture of a record breaking egg, the likes is what drives the narrative, and with Instagram now hiding these likes, it certainly changed the way we perceive content on the platform.

September

September saw even more IGTV news come to the fore, with the announcement of branded content tags. Not only are “paid partnership” tags now available in regular posts, but they are now also accessible on IGTV content. With the number of people using IGTV on the rise every month, it was only natural that Instagram rolled this out so that big brands and influencers could take advantage and add fuel to the every growing IGTV fire.

In addition to this announcement, during September Instagram also announced new restrictions around diet and cosmetic surgery promotions. Under these new restrictions, these types of promotions would no longer be accessible to people under the age of 18.

October

With the arrival of October, also came the arrival of more tools for brands to make more money. Noticing how brands would use Instagram to promote a product launch, Instagram rolled out a new “product launch” sticker, that could be added to your stories and allow followers to set a reminder for when the product is available for purchase.

Not to be too left, out, smaller brands also got some pretty cool features at the end of October, when Instagram launched customizable story templates for both Instagram and Facebook. Not alone was the timing perfect ahead of the holiday season, allowing businesses to customize with color, music, and call to action effects, but it also allowed brands with a smaller marketing budgets to look just as polished as larger corporations when it came to stories.

All in all, 2019 has thrown up some pretty interesting IG updates, and we have a feeling that they won’t stop there, with more rumored features set to launch in early 2020.

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About the Author
Michael Burke is a Brand Manager at SelfMade, one of New York City’s fastest-growing startups, where he helps eCommerce business scale online. When he is not helping eCommerce companies scale their businesses, he is writing for Entrepreneur Magazine, Business.com, and running TechPress, an online PR database he created to help thousands of startups get their business featured in the news more often” Get in touch here Twitter and LinkedIn.