Instagram is Testing a Native Repost Feature
- Laurent Giret
- Sep 09, 2022
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Instagram has started testing internally a native way to reshare posts in your feed. This will be pretty similar to Twitter’s Retweet feature, which determines how tweets can quickly become viral on the platform.
The new Repost feature was first spotted by app researcher Alessandra Paluzzi back in May. Earlier this week, social media consultant Matt Navarra also posted a screenshot of a new Repost tab on the profile of Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram.
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Instagram Reposts Tab on profiles?!
What’s dis Adam? pic.twitter.com/WayWCJGBfx
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) September 7, 2022
In a statement shared with Techcrunch, Instagram confirmed that the Repost feature will enter public testing soon. “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,” a spokesperson from Meta told TechCrunch in an email. “We plan to test this soon with a small number of people.”
Since Instagram already lets users reshare ephemeral Stories in their own Story, the absence of a native way to reshare other posts in the main feed didn’t make a lot of sense. Instagram users can already use various third-party apps to reshare posts with their followers, though this isn’t exactly seamless or elegant.
Instagram recently received a lot of criticism for tweaking its algorithm to promote Reels videos. It’s too early to tell how Instagram users will react to this upcoming native Repost feature, but it’s interesting to see the company copying a core Twitter feature after doing the same with Snapchat and TikTok.