A feature that people have been requesting for years
Reposts, in a way, have always been present on Instagram. But so far, there is no official way to “repost” something. You can screenshot someone else’s post, crop it, and upload it as your own or you can use one of many third-party reposting apps. But as far as an official reposting feature goes, we’ve had nothing like it. Instagram wants to change that, though.
The Meta-owned company has confirmed to TechCrunch that the app will begin testing a new reposting feature soon. In an email to the publication, a Meta spokesperson said that “we’re exploring the ability to reshare posts in Feed — similar to how you can reshare in Stories — so people can share what resonates with them, and so original creators are credited for their work.” They also went on to add that “we plan to test this soon with a small number of people.”
The feature had been previously spotted as a work-in-progress by social media and engineering maven Matt Navarra. If the final form of reposts is anything like what he’s found, reposts will show up as their own, separate tab on a user’s profile and would presumably be treated differently in-app from original, self-uploaded posts.
Having an official repost feature will eliminate the need of using third-party apps. They’ve been around for years and they’re often jam-packed with obnoxious full-screen ads, so the less users need to download them, the better for everyone.
TikTok recently added a “repost” feature that allows you to re-share videos with your followers, but they don’t show up on your profile. It’s likely Instagram’s equivalent will work similarly. Third-party repost apps copy the image, and caption, of a post and re-uploads it on your profile with a watermark. This looks like it’ll be less invasive than that.
The test should roll out to random users within the next weeks, so keep an eye out to see if you get it.
