Instagram’s New Tool Lets You Recap 2024 in Photos

Instagram is rolling out an end-of-year recap tool that will let users celebrate 2024 with a collage of their favorite photos.

Instagram’s new feature allows users to showcase their favorite photos and moments from 2024 by creating a collage for their stories.

This feature, available only until the first week of January, enables Instagram users to compile and share a collection of photos from the past year with their followers.

Currently, creating collage-style stories involves manually adding and resizing individual photos or using Instagram’s layout tool, which restricts images to a grid format. However, according to a report in The Verge, the new update simplifies this process, offering a more user-friendly way to display highlights.

Instagram is also releasing four new “Add Yours” stickers designed to inspire users to share their year-end recap.

Instagram is including a new “New Year” font and a “Countdown” text effect that can be used in Stories, Reels, and Feed posts. Holiday-themed chat themes for DMs, such as “Mariah Carey,” “New Years,” and “Chill,” are being rolled out to personalize conversations.

Additionally, Instagram users can discover hidden animations by typing secret phrases such as “Happy New Year” in Notes and DMs.

Scheduled DMs and Trial Reels

This week, Instagram also quietly rolled out the ability for users to schedule direct messages. On Monday, the social media platform confirmed to TechCrunch that the new feature is rolling out to all users globally.

Instagram users can schedule a DM by typing out a message, holding down the send button, and then selecting a date and time to send the message. According to testing by TechCrunch, Instagram lets users schedule a message up 29 days in advance, according to our testing.

Once a user schedules a message, they will see a notice reminding them that they have “1 scheduled message” every time they open the chat until the DM is delivered.

Meanwhile, last week Instagram also launched “trial reels” that will let creators test out new content with users that are not their followers.

Instagram announced it would be introducing trial reels as a way for users to experiment with new ideas and see what content performs best by sharing these videos with people who don’t follow them on the platform.

Creators can share a reel as a trial by choosing the “Trial” option when creating it. The reel will be shown to non-followers but won’t appear on their main grid or reels tab.
 

 
Image credits: All photos by Instagram.