After experimenting with Notes on Reels and Posts over the past few months, Instagram has now launched a live test of expanded Notes options with selected users.
As you can see in this notification, posted by Justin Jarvis (and shared by Matt Navarra), some users are now being informed that they can add Notes to feed posts and Reels, providing more ways to use its conversation starter prompts to generate engagement.
Notes, which Instagram originally launched December 2022, provide a simple way to leave an engagement trigger for other users in the app, and have proven particularly popular with younger users.
Which is a demographic that IG really wants to hold onto, amid the rise of TikTok, which is why it’s now looking to add Notes to every element of the app, in order to double down on that initial success.
Indeed, after first adding Notes to user inboxes, Instagram has now also experimented with Notes on profiles, along with is aforementioned tests of Notes on Reels and feed posts, which are now getting a bigger push.
So, will they work? Will users care?
Well, again, based on the success of Notes with younger audiences (teen users around 10x more likely to create a Note in the app versus everybody else), it stands to reason that they could well work in other contexts as well, while users that don’t like them and aren’t interested can just ignore them and move on, without ever paying the feature much mind.
As such, it’s a fairly safe experiment for IG, with minimal disruption. And if Notes on feed posts and Reels catch on, that could be another win for the app.
We’ve asked Instagram for more information on the new test and will update this post if/when we hear back.
