The Facebook-owned social network, Instagram, originally launched on October 6, 2010, which means the company today turns 10 years old. To celebrate the occasion, the company is letting users choose from a variety of app icons to place on their home screen in place of the usual purple-to-orange gradient.
The new icons include various color gradients, including a Pride-themed variant, and most notably, the ability to go back to using the app"s original icon, featuring a Polaroid-style camera design. The company teased the feature on Twitter, and users quickly spotted the icon choices in the app.
Here’s a vid of the secret! 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/ZlRIWWa0s7
— Patrick Kosmowski (@kosmowskipat) October 6, 2020
Instagram also announced some new features to combat bullying on its platform. A while back, the company introduced warnings for users that try to post offensive content, and those warnings have been helpful in reducing negative interactions on Instagram, according to the company. Now, the company will warn users if they repeatedly try to post content that"s been reported as offensive. The warning will let users know that their comment may be automatically hidden if it"s posted, and that if the comment violates the Community Guidelines, the user"s account may be deleted.
And yes, Instagram is making it so that potentially offensive comments will be hidden by default, with an option to view hidden comments for those interested. It"s also possible to unhide comments if you don"t agree with them being hidden.
Finally, as reported by TechCrunch, the company has added a new Stories Map feature, which lets users view their own past stories overlaid on a map. The map will show Stories from the past three years, allowing users to see where they"ve been in that time.