Instagram to soon get Live Activities features: What it means for users, how to get it

Meta is having a busy month so far. The company recently unveiled Threads by Instagram app as a rival to Elon Musk-owned Twitter. Now, word is that another Meta-owned app is reportedly working on a new feature that will make it easier for users to track if their upload is complete. Instagram, as per new reports, is testing a new feature dubbed as Live Activities, for its iOS app. This new feature will help iPhone users track the status of their Instagram uploads. Also Read: Instagram Launches Limited-Edition Diwali Filters: Here’s How To Use Them

As noted by 9to5Mac reader Fernando Moretto, the Instagram app is now showing Live Activities when users close the app while uploading a new photo or video. This eliminates the need to open the Instagram app again-and-again to make sure the upload is completed. Also Read: Meta AI Adds UPI Lite, Hindi Support, and Deepika Padukone’s Voice to Ray-Ban Glasses in India

What makes this feature truly utilitarian is that the Instagram’s Live Activities will work on both Lock Screen and Dynamic Island on iPhones. Also Read: Meta Wants Employees To Build The Metaverse 5X Faster Using AI

As far as availability is concerned, this feature is currently available to a really small number of users, as the company is testing it before rolling it out widely.

What else?

Meanwhile, last month, Instagram head Adam Mosseri had announced that the social networking platform was rolling out the ability to download Reels shared by public accounts to the camera roll, in the US.

“Worth mentioning, Reels shared by private accounts can’t be downloaded and public accounts can turn off the ability for people to download their Reels in Account Settings,” he had said. Mosseri didn’t specify whether there would be any watermark on the downloaded Reels. However, a picture shared by him indicated that the downloaded video shows the account name of the user who posted it and the company’s logo.

In addition to this, Meta last month, announced that it is expanding the availability of the ‘Why Am I Seeing This?’ feature to the Reels on Instagram and Facebook. While announcing the feature last month, the company also said that it is making this feature available in Instagram’s Explore page in a bid to ensure that users can understand the reason why a particular post was being shown to them.

“You’ll be able to click on an individual reel to see more information about how your previous activity may have informed the machine learning models that shape and deliver the reels you see,” Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs at Meta had said in a blog post at the time.